frenchie full was welcomed with public celebrations across the road from sidney to find congress to london, which kicked off the new year with its biggest f, a fireworks display. i think so dw, the toxic waste generated by producing amphetamines and the 2nd poses to the public . i've been visible and stay with us the it shouldn't be this one here. it's hard not to feel something really is happening here. what is happening to greens and ice? explore and and past the into the ice starts january dw,

we joined the debts, police on the trail of drug, mafia gas. i think we're on to something on producing synthetic drugs. not only requires a lot of chemicals, it also produces tons of highly toxic waste, which usually ends up in the environment. the homes in children here, driven by greed, the cartels often pressure residents and to cooperating. the sake of also the farmer received a threatening letter in the letter box, the item it read. we know where your children go to school. anything that you can look schools into. how dangerous is this toxic waste for humans and the environment? the

across the border in western germany, there are problems too. this is a sleepy village, north of benefits. in april 2019 a startling discovery was made. the ones i've got unfortunately, that's what we we just couldn't imagine that such a large drug lab could be set up on our doorstep in this village without anyone noticing wanted us to come to russ. lori heads up the local volunteer fire department one sunday morning during breakfast, he saw something shocking looking out of the window, there was a fire raging not far from his home. right next to his workshop. laurie drove straight over. just as he arrived, 2 strangers were leading the burning building, which belong to a local business man, and him over to come at that moment. 2 men came out of the building and with one of

them had a gas mask constitute a musket old they fled the scene in advance. other firefighters from russ lori's department then arrived. they entered the building to investigate. at 1st, they didn't know what to make of it. there were countless propane gas cylinders, all stockton, the entrance area. it was almost impossible to get through. the explosive cylinders were not only dangerous, but also highly unusual. why would anyone need so much gas? you must the sheer amount of it was suspicious of further inside they found $1000.00 leader canisters filled with chemicals, likely both toxic and explosive density to it. so what involved the whole thing was a bit overwhelming to me. but when do we see over the next few hours, it became clear that laurie and his team were not dealing with a normal fire. that they had stumbled upon the largest drug

laboratory ever found in germany. the, the netherlands. it's december 2022. we are in the province, evelyn book we're out with an under cover investigator from the judge police to protect his identity. we're hiding his face and have distorted his voice. we'll call him young boys as well. sure. it's always good and i'm afraid exciting to be out at night though. we have information that there might be a drug lab somewhere here in building in a village near here. yeah, we don't know if there are people there. now, the special task force will go in 1st to check it out and make sure the areas safe . there are people inside, they'll be arrested and if there are weapons they'll be confiscated. so now i'm stuck on the wall from them. or should i follow your follow you?

are you who the guy with the toyota? because if you about the most common synthetic drugs aren't ecstasy which is consumed in pill form. speed, which can be snorted and crystal match the crystal form of methamphetamine which can be smoke. score also, snorted young boy goes and his team, meanwhile, are getting ready to storm the drug lab they discovered as while investigating undercover the, the police approaching convoy heavily armed special forces unit is in the black man . they also had a bulldozer ready to tear open the gates. so the special task force can enter quickly and surprise anyone who may be inside the

the, the doors open. they're going in wearing gas masks to protect themselves from the chemicals used in drug production. the police store and the building, the at the 1st store, the officers find nothing. you could try all the doors. it's building 52 d or 2 d id. it should we open at the door, someone there. the police break open a 2nd door and then a 3rd the loud center move inside the warehouse, the barrels of the chemicals or something. so the telephone will now come and check them out. but i think it will be a good hall conference on you. go to the functions the l f. o is the

department of the depths, police force that specializes in chemicals used in drugs. when something suspicious is found, they go in after the special forces unit to check whether there are hazardous substances and secure the scene. or know what they've done in inspection to see what's in the lab. and if there are any toxic chemicals, but once we get the okay from them, we can go in view. you're going from a, we're going, come with me, going to run out of you. now the other police officers can enter the building. we're going into the collision from our colleagues from the left. so say no drugs have been produced here. yes. so this is a laboratory under construction. this is where the stuff is.

this. as of august, i dropped tonight is heading up the l. s. o operation. he's been taking a closer look at the chemicals and these are things that are to level this is a drug laboratory under construction. harold, the great we see here a very large boiler tank with a capacity of around 1000 leaders of do the move that are all sorts of function devices over 5, they still have to be assembled is here. and those guys another look at the size of that tank. you could portal several 100 leaders of chemicals in there. once you go and this will have guy cannot have you guy. always look at the chemicals over here . the side of the things you there in this tent of the variables it contains form of mind or form an asset, humans and plus boric acid. it's an amphetamine laboratory. almost ready to begin production. the chemicals would be mixed and heated in large metal containers using gas burner. and there are tons of chemicals,

toxic acid step would have produced around 1000 kilos of amphetamines, with the street value of 1000000 zeros in just one week, the gen blacklist and his colleagues drove. and that was a special investigator for a drug laboratories have seen many such crime scenes. was always almost once a bit unusual about there's places that here of the chemicals. here is the laboratory. and next to it is a room where people who work here can sleep or have a cup of coffee. awful quick is this is all i'll spend, the thing is once the process is running, you can't interrupted. how much do i stick with it once? and if something goes wrong, you have to be able to intervene so strong. and i mean, that's where things get especially problematic. because the people who make these drugs and most of them don't usually know what to do if it goes wrong from steven office. and so sometimes there are accidents and people get seriously hurt because

things explode and so on. and just the items right. we've seen it all. i usual magazine, the netherlands is europe's biggest center for producing synthetic drugs. by chance, the police also stumbled on a cannabis plantation nearby during their operation. but here the investigators are more concerned about the synthetic drugs as they involve toxic chemicals. very few of the drug makers or chemists and aware of the dangers, fires and explosions occurred time and again, local residents are also at risk, even though most of them have no idea what's happening in their neighborhood. and there's something that says coming up that sort of like various chemical vapors are released during the process. see arvin monoxide can be released, which is dangerous. that's more

a student like concentration might even be high enough to kill someone if it's ever since on. so that's why the special unit that went in was 1st we're wearing protective suits, each offered to include masks that filter out the substances so they can work safely. item gun and usually don't seem. it's still pretty clean here because the lab was still under construction licenses. it's usually the case that once they start producing just the place, getting pretty dirty, leasing i missed an o s b. i'm often like and they don't know exactly what they're doing, sign so there may be chemicals everywhere on life. and you have to be careful where your statute thankful. otherwise your shoes might melt away and burn. it's quite dangerous, and i just want to finish large quantities of toxic waste are produced during the manufacturer of the drugs. the desk police told us the 1st 1000 kilos of amphetamines in this laboratory would have produced up to 30000 kilos. toxic waste

. so what happens to them waste back in germany in the city of this sort of we find answers from the state criminal police force. forensic scientist johan is tied up on linda chemical analyses of a huge drug laboratory, found nearby live and in 20. 19 it too, was a laboratory for producing amphetamines, including speed. thanks to 3 d imaging, you know, towards the crime scene from his computer. does this cry that they're making all of this of them you from the warehouse to the outside? when kind of started out, you can then turn around and have a view into the building needs. you can see a lot of canisters, stuart here, come this for these. i'd be seized with a capacity of 1000 leaders from moving some contain waste chemicals and vice. further back are the ones with pure chemicals used to synthesize to the drugs. wouldn't. there were 2 rooms set up for the synthesizing of amphetamines,

a break room for the drug makers, and elaborate ventilation system to filter out the toxic vapors and transport them outside equipment for producing $1000.00 leaders of amphetamine. oil per week, well shielded from the outside world, plus $30000.00 leader canisters for storing chemicals and toxic waste. and here the investigators made a shocking discovery. inside of this, i know that one of the canisters at the back is crucial states. let's zoom in closer. money on the farm in more met the moment the photo was taken. there was still a back on top of the outlet east of the malls, but we later discovered a deep, well that have been drilled here is where the waste was being empty into the ground . when he up fella. expressions inside, outside your all your lights and for the whole went down 12 meters below the surface. the investigators were alarmed the chemical waste with not only

contaminate the soil and killed plants, animals, and micro organisms. any person who came into contact with the caustic chemicals could also burn their skin. and if they drink that contaminated groundwater could even damage their internal organs. the the police investigation showed the laboratory, had only been in operation for a few weeks. it was set up by a dutch gang a short circuit, probably triggers a fire in the plant. luckily, the laboratory had only been able to produce a small amount of drugs and therefore hadn't discharged much waste. and environmental report found no acute risk to local residents. the few, let's in this be are no longer possible to determine how much i see into the ground and what we believed. it was only a few 100 leaders ago who at least from the tank that was connected at the time. so

you can turn that off to a on this list involved. back in the netherlands, investigator young boy goes, is visiting the public prosecutor's office in monterey. he's investigating a case of chemicals, trafficking, and wants to discuss the next steps with public prosecutor. groups means, appointments like this are not uncommon for young boy. this drug production is booming and the netherlands. ecstasy and speed produced here can make it all the way to us. truly. 80 percent of dodge may drugs or export it. one european studies found that the cartels sell 19000000000 zeros worth every year. a destructive business all around it from the resulting chemical waste pollutes the far as what runs into rivers so low. it's not good for wildlife, but it's not good for people either. when children play in the area, they come into contact with the chemicals. it's dangerous,

and so this young boy, this is taking a criminal investigator from amsterdam to see an illegal drug dumpsite shona made bomb is investigating the phenomenon of drug waste throughout the country. she's hoping that young boy goes can give her information on what's happening in the province of them both. it's an area of particular interest because it live close to the border with germany and belgium. things here in the neighborhood area that are, that this very close to the borders is very different. for instance, in, in the and northern region, often at an end or the eastern region of threat of state or the netherlands. the big question is, are the drug producers transporting their waste and disposing of it far away from the laboratories to minimize the risk of detection? or are they disposing at a close by which is cheaper and easier? if you want to know how far the truck then where is this traffic you have to know

where it comes from? and often we don't need to know with is there there's, there's too many dumb things to analyze the contents. there's also a terry, that them lies. be like professional bumpers who collect the ways from shuffle protection locations and then dump it at one spot. young boy goes, shows china made about a dumping site right on the german dashboard and a dylan, rural location. during the day, the area is popular with walkers and cyclists, but at night it's quiet. the field is surrounded by woods, perfect place to dispose of waste. if you look at this, or the good thing is a place that it's in containers, so the waste is contained, but you can see that this kind of message running around to there is a risk of death is going to leak. and then this would be dangerous if you get in contact with the substances cells. but this can be verse. there are cases where the waste is directly dumped into the land or into the water. and this can has to fear

results for plants. what those are for animals or the yeah, the 1st useful nurse, the dentist or cheese find around $200.00, such as dump sides every year. sometimes the drug producers simply dumped the waste into the sewage system. but if the chemicals reach a certain concentration, they disrupt the function of the sewage treatment plants. so with this option, there's a high risk of detection. throughout her investigation, shannon mail bomb has found that the car towels dispose of 70 percent of their toxic waste in sparsely populated nature reserve. they often steal cars or trucks, load them full of waste and then abandoned them or set them on fire. or they bribed farmers to let them mix the smelly waste into the liquid mon. newer the chemicals are then spread out onto the fields. debts, police find $250000.00 kilos of drug waste every year,

but according to estimates and that's only a 3rd of the actual amount of waste produced. the probably the criminal networks are getting better and hiding. does work waste of disclosing it in ways that we don't easily detect a germany's criminal police office and respond concern is also growing about the dangers of drug waste. the large lab discovered near b, the fed shows the dutch drug mafia is also active in germany. and the waste doesn't stop at the border either. so it doesn't often goes on for 2018. there was a case where a truck was simply driven across the border answer. the phone went on for the police officer, noticed a brown liquid leaking out of it, contained it 10 tons of production waste. misha inputs is another forensic scientist and a chemist. before he explains what actually makes the waste so toxic, he shows us the drugs that the police have confiscated. i know

this is a pack of ecstasy, tablets, depiction that bags inside of contain around 100000 tablets, 60 c tablet. this is ayla from $500.00. this is one of 2 back that were seized and one home and a 1000. so 200000 tablets in total for cost plus and ecstasy tablet typically sells for round $5.00 euro soon to. so these 2 bags alone have a street value of around 1000000 euros life. when these natasha, i'm getting that from the 1000000 euros for 2 bags. that's an indication of just how much money can be made from these drugs. it explains why the producers are willing to handle toxic chemicals without fully understanding what they're doing. michelle puts them, does a little experiment to demonstrate just how dangerous the chemicals are and you them off at the amine level, but in every, instead of me laboratory you'll find at least 2 of these 4 assets often in very large quantities. second. so is this the concentrated cost for the gas? it essentially a concentrated form, a gas, it could just move concentrated. so if you're a gas it to be

a design and concentrated hydrochloric acid, ease of use oil, and you'd want to pose a specific dangers of hours for me. yeah. so for example, releases carbon monoxide to bits, eat it too much, it's good quote, monarchs it fire this way and that's why fatal accidents occurring amphetamine laboratories and they'll do the carbon monoxide poisoning friend for recording. now let's look at the effect of concentrated so if you're a gas it organic materials will come fun content for you to see if it's live or gone to so much for the items you're janick. material he's going to use is simple household sugar. it consists of nothing other than carbohydrates, a basic building block of life found in the cells of our bodies. so what happens? the acid breaks down, or rather burns the sugar within just a short time. that's what all by name. this would have the same effect on living systems. so i could equally burn the surface

of my skin as question for i had some addition to corrosive assets. the waste contains other substances which are likely dangerous to dismiss them off. is this, the bad news is that all of these organic substances that are by products of amphetamine synthesis have not actually been pharmacologic. we studied regardless. so it's not exactly possible to say what toxic effects they'll likely have. they shouldn't talk such a vocal funding, or experts suspect that the drug waste contains carcinogenic substances, but whether they could pose a risk to humans in nature has not yet been properly researched. in 2018, a study from the netherlands found residues of the chemical waste in corn and therefore in the food chain. but once that, an isolated case or evidence of something more widespread, nobody knows. as there's no regular screening for these chemicals. the cartels appear to have been busy expanding their activities in rural areas.

general i goes meet with the spokes person for the nimble farming community. the under cover investigator wants to know what experience the farmers have had with the mafia. becomes clear that the gangs are specifically targeting store houses and barns to produce drugs and hide waste and that would open it up. okay, so let me give you an example. let's say google farmer received a threatening letter in the letter box, get it read, and it says, we know where your children go to school. they can also, we're going to be using a gun and we'll talk the problem. in other words, it's also farmers are being blackmail and intimidated into continuing to do this. academic like is that for into making their premises available, even though they no longer want to meet most of the farmer ties to run through the bank has himself been lucky? so far, unlike other farmers and friends of his, he has not yet been approached by the drug producers. he's all too aware that standing up to the brutal and financially powerful cartels is not easy. so how can

the problem of the drug labs be brought under control? the one possibility would be to target the root of the problem by taking chemicals used in drug production out of circulation before they can get into the wrong hands. the substances are mostly brought to europe by sea, from china arriving here at the port of hamburg. for example, customs investigators have received a tip off. they're following a truck that may be transporting drug chemicals. so we have a single container. we've picked up a container here, a container terminal, which we will now take to the volume, this whole area to be x rayed. splitting. the truck is put into a huge x ray machine where its contents can be scanned, the but the image on the

computer just appear to show anything suspicious stuff. i've been patched different. i'm finished. can you come over the all settings? so i've studied the x ray, let's look at it together. so i haven't found any irregularities. and the can do, painter itself is also negative, negative. the container container itself is negative, no sign of manipulation. that's what i'm let me show you again here. my. yes. but the x ray images only provide a limited view to function. so the investigators decide to break open the container mine arnold was for my impression is that the goods are ultimately no different from what we've already seen on the x ray image. we can also see now during the manual inspection that the goods are packed in different ways. and then we have

a few more packages on top, which was also clearly visible on the x ray, because the not, you can just hit sounds like there's, there's nothing on here that gives rise to suspicion that would justify a more in depth inspection testing good from our point of view, we can now say the goods are okay also in the us. now. since the 19 ninety's, germany and the netherlands have had a list of chemicals that are considered precursors for drug production. the substances are subject to customs controls, but the drug producers regularly change their formulas. plus many companies also use these chemicals for completely legal purposes. so the work of the customs officers is like searching for a needle in a haystack. and they can only get the fraction of the containers thorough check the

back in the middle in the authorities are now trying to enlist the help of the general public. their hope is that this could allow new laboratories to be discovered more quickly. the chair of a former police officer is explaining to local people how a drug laboratory works and what it smells like. a ymca, what is the home c, m. k is a precursor of m d m a, which is the active ingredient in x in x and next to see, right. when i ask young people that they know the answer to a and b m k smells a little bit like a nice of the the hope is that vigilant residents who noticed a suspicious smell in the neighborhood were reported to the police. you can then disrupt the operations of the drug cartels and thereby stopped them spreading. we're on the road again with young boy good. he wants to show us another crime

scene. yes and for you by the to garage is where we were a few months ago. the law, this is where the laboratory was all the was the laboratory wasn't number 4 and the chemicals were number 5. it's very dangerous when they're right next to each other like that to me. but almost to the drug producers simply dump their toxic waste into the adjacent stream, which then became contaminated. it had to be cleaned up at great expense, your water. this is where it was smoke, who's came around the corner and led down into the water. people live all around here for more children to play here. they're in animals. house, pets that might drink from the water. yes, it's very worrying to every year the dutch government spend $6000000.00 euros on cleanup operations like this one. the wider risks are rarely examined closely, and in germany,

the problem gets even less attention. the authorities don't keep a central record of how many illegal drug waste dumps are identified per each and each year. the news, the get ready for an exciting out until you full of surprises. i'm shutting down and i'm ready to dive into the house of tillman to us the coupon. we have you as a one does not do need to support this card via included in the on the vehicle. this process and unexpected side supplies enjoy cost about why does that, and i think it's like now i'm leave them under the new

host to join us for an exciting exploration and everything in between. this is a video and audio production, 5 d, w. i hope video with you and in the this group is funding for some of the world's rarest eggs. they're searching for the endangered tv bugs of a, a tail rolling, you ceiling to steal their eggs and save them from predators. almost 95 percent of teachers are killed in the wilds. if nothing is done, they will likely disappear. in new zealand record sales, kaylee would be pretty bad if we need to.