quite so rough the island nation on the states can at least 48 people. the sphere the desktop could ride so far to say that having difficulties reaching some of the hottest have all well news at the top of the, our next documentary close up looks at the toxic pollution from illegal synthetic drugs. good. 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 an untouched place into the ice. january dw,

we join the depths, police on the trail of drug mafia gang. regardless of i think we're on to something 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. you're either of homes and children here, driven by greed the cartels off and pressure residence into cooperating and take it also. the farmer received a threatening letter in the letter box. the item it read. we know where your children go to school every device. you can look schools into how dangerous is this toxic waste for humans and the environment the,

the across the border in western germany, there are problems too. this is a sleepy village north of b like fit in april 2019 a startling discovery was made because i gotta be forced to into school. and so 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. lorry drove straight over. just as he arrived, 2 strangers were leading the burning building which belong to a local business man. and i'm only 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 split 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. they were countless propane gas cylinders all stocked in 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 a sheer amount of it was suspicious much further inside they found $1000.00 leader canisters filled with chemicals. likely both toxic and explosive density towards the one above. the whole thing was a bit overwhelming shown. but when do assist over the next few hours, it became clear that laurie and his team were not dealing with a normal fire. they hitched the pond,

the largest drug laboratory ever found in germany. the netherlands. it's december 2022. we are in the province. evelyn bush were 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. i says it's always good and i'm a bit exciting to me out at night. we have information that there might be a drug lab somewhere here in dealing in a village near here. yeah, we don't know if there are people there now for the special task force will go in 1st to check it out and make sure the areas safe. there are people inside, so they'll be arrested. and if there are a weapons, they'll be confiscated or an armed truck problem from the war from them. or should i follow your follow you?

are you who the guy with the toyota during the visit with you about the most common synthetic drugs are next to see which is consumed in pill form. speed which can be snorted and crystal match the crystal form of methamphetamine which can be smokes for 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 approach in convoys 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 storm, the building, the at the 1st door, the officers find nothing. you can try all the doors. it's building 52 d or 2 d id. it should we open at the close? i'm on there. the police break open a 2nd door and then a 3rd the the loud center move inside the warehouse. there were barrels of chemicals or something. so the telephone will now come and check them out. but i think it will be a good hall event from, from you who from d. l i follow is the department of the debts,

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 to begin with, 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 it'd be, this is where this stuff is. this is all this whole

a roof to try is heading up the alaska operation. he's been taking a closer look at the chemicals and these are things that are to level to this as a drug laboratory under construction. the great we see here a very large boiler tank with a capacity of around 1000 leaders through the mood 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 guided canada, favey 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 like acid units 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 assets that 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 back was a special investigator for a drug laboratories. have seen many such crime scenes was always almost was 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. clinton for me is this is all been 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 the items, while we've seen it off, i usual magazine. the netherlands is europe's biggest center for producing synthetic drugs. by chance, the police also stumbled on account of his 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. the induced assess, coming up the various chemical vapors are released during the process. see arvin monoxide can be released, which is dangerous. as much

a student with the 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 wearing protective suits and stuff, and they include masks that filter out the substances so they can work safely. item gun and usually don't seem to be so pretty clean here because the lab was still under construction licenses. it's usually the case that once they start producing this, the place getting pretty dirty, leasing are let mister know what's the most that you like. and they don't know exactly what they're doing design, so there may be chemicals everywhere. life. and you have to be careful where your statute, mindful. 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

the 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 near deal event 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 make 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 leads. you can see a lot of canister storage here. kindness for these, i'd be seized with a capacity of 1000 liters for moving some contain waste. chemical said volume further back are the ones with pure chemicals used to synthesize 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 this, i know that one of the canisters at the back is crucial states. let's zoom in closer money. i was on the phone with me at the moment the photo was taken. there was still a back on top of the outlet east of the miles, but we later discovered a deep, well that have been drilled here is where the waste was being emptied into the ground. when he up fairly inch presence inside or outside you 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 kill 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 reports found no acute risk to local residents. the few, let's in this be, are no longer possible to determine how much a seed 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 made appointments like this are not uncommon for young boy. this drug production is booming in the netherlands. ecstasy and speed produced here can make it all the way to us truly. 80 percent of the judge may drugs or an exported one. european studies found that the cartels sell 19000000000 euros worth every year. a destructive business all around a father, that's the resulting chemical waste pollutants the far as what runs into rivers so low. it's not good for wild life, 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 goodness is taking

a criminal investigator from amsterdam to see an illegal drug dumpsite shown him a volume 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 and then in the area that are, that this very close to the borders is very different. for instance, in, in the and northern region open at an end or the eastern regional sort 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 it didn't work, then where is this terrific? you have to know where it comes from. and often we don't need to know with so

there's there's, there's too many dumb things to analyze the contents. there's also a to read them like be like professional bumpers who collect the ways from shuffle production locations and then dump it at one spot. youngblood. let's choose china may 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 that is going to leak and then it 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 in 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 tells 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. dutch police find $250000.00 kilos of drug waste every year. but according to estimates, 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 be the head, shows the ducks, 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 on to unplug it. so the police officer noticed abram liquids leaking out of it, and double contained at 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 valuable ecstasy, tablets and the depiction that bags inside of the contain around 100000 tablets 6. and she told me that this is i looked on slide testing done like this is one of 2 back that were cced and one home and a 1000 plus 020-0000 tablets and total cost plus and ecstasy tablet typically sells for round 5 euro soon to so these 2 bags alone have a street value of around 1000000 euro supply. if we do some testing, i'm getting that for the 1000000 euro is 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 get them off at the mean level. but in every, instead of me, laboratory, you'll find at least 2 of these 4 assets often and very large quantities. so this, the concentrated cost for the concepts into the concentrated form, a gas that they just move concentrated sophia gas. so to 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 heat it too much, it's good calling monarch 6 fire dispute. that's my fatal accidents occurring amphetamine laboratories, and they'll do to carbon monoxide poisoning on 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 off or gone to so much for the items you're getting 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. this would all by name, this would have the same effect on living systems. so i could equally burn the surface of my skin. since i had some addition to corrosive assets,

the waste contains other substances which are likely dangerous to just let them off . is this, the bad news is that all these organic substances that are by products of amphetamine synthesis not actually been pharmacologic. we studied regardless of so it's not exactly possible to say what toxic effect and they'll likely have most of the process of l cool funding or experts suspect that the drug waste contains carson, a genic substances. but whether they could pose a risk to humans, a nature has not yet been properly researched. in 2018, a study from the netherlands found residues of the chemical waste and corn and therefore in the food chain. but was that an isolated case or evidence of something more widespread? nobody knows. as there's no regular screening for these chemicals, the, the cartels appear to have been busy expanding their activities in rural areas.

young boy goes, meets with his spokes person for the nimble forming community. the under cover investigator wants to know what experience the farmers have had with the mafia. he becomes clear that the games are specifically targeting store houses and barns to produce drugs and hide waste. a lot of the okay, so let me give you an example of i'll take off the alarm or 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 i to the other words. it's also farmers are being blackmailed and intimidated into continuing to do this. i, the one with 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 of that, standing up to the brutal and financially powerful cartels is not a see. 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 to boss. 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 appeared to show anything suspicious stuff. i've been touch different. i'm finished. can you come over to them? so i have studies the x ray, let's look at it together. so i haven't found any irregularities. and the container itself is also negative. their continued chain or itself is negative, no sign of manipulation. that's what i'm let me show you again here. my. yeah. but the x ray images only provide a limited view to 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 imaging. we can also see now during the manual inspection that the goods are packed in different ways and that we have a few. our packages on top is which was also clearly visible on the x ray,

because the not you can just, it sounds like there's, there's nothing on here that gives rise to suspicion that would justify a more than delegate inspection. having 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 changed 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 netherlands. the authorities are now trying to enlist the help, but 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. same kind, let us the whole c, m. k is a precursor of m d m a, which is the active ingredient in x in x and next to 6, right? again, when i ask young people that they know the answer to a and got the m k smells a little bit like a nice the hope is that vigilant residence who noticed a suspicious smell in the neighborhood were reported to the police, can then disrupt the operations of the drug cartels and thereby stopped them spreading. we're on the road again with young boy goods. he wants to show us another crime scene. so yes into 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. even even on the screen, 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, one more children to play here, there and animals and house patches that might drink from the water. yes, it's very worrying to every year, the dutch government spends $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 so you're insane to the same way you expect and more different things from life than your parents. i just want to pursue what that's nice on the side or you think your kid is 2 different, risky, irresponsible, reasonable stop. and the porters as nonsense. i wonder what's the doctor still in

the clouds? it's time to get your generation with a fleet ask and then wind generation flash starts january 14th, and dw says kind of fun. it feels like therapy, the carbon neutral energy, new medicines to truth, cancer or cove. it and foldable screens, thanks to quantum computers. these could be innovations of the future. for years, scientists have been confident that these processors will be the next big tech revolution. but how far have developers really come? and what can we gain quantum computers? that's our topic today on shift the

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