and we go say, how soon does she to the success that goes to that we set up to, you know, medical people, stuff was work hard one the tenants otherwise. so not because we joined the judge police on the trail of drug mafia gags, conference. 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 and children here, driven by greed, the cartels off and pressure residents into cooperating. and they give us a 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 help schools into how dangerous is this toxic waste for humans and the environment the across the border in western germany, there are problems to this is a sleepy village north of benefits. in april 2019 a startling discovery was made. because i'd like any force the end of 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 on wanted us to come to russ laurie 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 leaving 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 on. so you can most of the old they let 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 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 much further inside they found

$1000.00 leader canisters filled with chemicals, likely both toxic and explosive dunces into it. so one above the whole thing was a bit overwhelming. showing that when do assist over the next few hours, it became clear that laurie and his team were not dealing with a normal fire. they had stumbled upon the largest drug laboratory ever found in germany. the, the netherlands. it's december 2022. we are in the province of limbo or ouch, with an undercover investigator from the dentist release. to protect his identity. we're hiding his face and have distorted his voice. we'll call him young boys as it's always good and have a great, a citing to be out of main office. we have the 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, so need this 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 a weapons they'll be confiscated or so now i'm stuck probably watching them or should i follow your follow you? are you who the guy with the toyota because the people are the most common, synthetic drugs are ecstasy 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 under cover the,

the police approach and 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 doors open. they're going in wearing gas masks to protect themselves from the chemicals used in drug production. the police during 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, to someone there,

the police break open a 2nd door and then a 3rd the, the block center we have inside the warehouse. they were barrels of the chemicals or something. so the telephone will now come and check them. and i think it'll be a good hall. you think of it from the, from 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, they've done an 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 with you. you're going from a, we're going come with me. going to run out over here we are. 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 business where this stuff is this is all these all dropped to try is heading up the alaska operation. he's been taking a closer look at the chemicals on this level though, this is a drug laboratory under construction health of 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 suction devices over 5, they still have to be assembled is here. and there's a guide. they 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 say, because look at the chemicals over here. the sign

a did things you there in this tent of the variables contained 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 young 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, coffee clinton from a. 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. the items, right, we've seen it off on the other side, 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. it just says 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 low 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, where wearing protective suits should often they include masks that filter out these substances so they can work safely. item gun and usually don't seem to feel pretty clean here because the lab was still under construction licenses. it's usually the case that once they start producing this is the place getting pretty dirty, leasing, at least to know what's the most that you like. and they don't know exactly what they're doing signs. so there may be chemicals everywhere,

one bytes. and you have to be careful where you, statute, thankful, otherwise your shoes might melt away and burn. it's quite dangerous, and i've got a stronger feeling. large quantities of toxic waste are produced during the manufacturer of the drugs. the desk police told us the 1st 1000 kilos of amphetamines and 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. you want us to have them on linda chemical analyses as a huge drug laboratory found near be live. and in 2019 it too was a laboratory for producing amphetamines, including speed. thanks to 3 d imaging. take, you know, towards a crime scene from his computer. does his private epic all of this,

of the video from the warehouse to the outside when kind of started out? you can then turn around and have a view into the building seats. uh, you can see a lot of canister stuart here. cabinets for these ivy sees with a capacity of 1000, the leaders for moving some contain waste, chemicals, and volume. further back are the ones with pure chemicals used to synthesize the drug test? wouldn't. there were 2 rooms setup 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 there one of the canisters at the back is crucial states. let's zoom in

closer on the, on the farm. in movement at the moment the photo was taken. there was still a bag on top of the outlet east of the moles, 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 you all your lights and for the whole wind down 12 meters below the surface . the investigators were alarmed. the chemical waste would 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 of 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 and we 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 means appointments like this or 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, a 80 percent of dodge may drugs or an exported one. european studies found at the

cartels sell $19000000000.00 zeros worth every year. a destructive business all around a father that's the resulting chemical waste pollutes the forest. what runs into rivers so 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, this is taking a criminal investigator from amsterdam to see an illegal drug dumpsite shown on may a 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 limbo. it's an area of particular interest because it live close to the border with germany and belgium. the things here 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 traffic you have to know where it comes from? and often we don't need to know it. um there 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. young boy goes, shows china made about a dumping site. right on the german dashboard and a deluxe rule 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 at least that it's in containers. so the waste is contained, but you can see that this kind of message running around to the 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 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 responders, the duchess 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 to smelly waste into the liquid mon. newer the chemicals are then spread out onto the fields depths. 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 ways 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 this said shows the depths 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, 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 depiction, the bags inside of contain around 100000 tablets, 6 and c tablet. this is ayla from slide testing to download. this is one of 2 back that were cced in one hall 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 euro supply for these compassion. 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 mean 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 concepts into the concentrated form, a gas that they just move concentrated, so fear aggressive 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, eat it too much, it's good, cool, monarchs it fire this way and that's why fatal accidents occurring amphetamine laboratories and they'll do the carbon monoxide poisoning on friend flavor. cool, now let's look at the effect of concentrated so if you're a gas it on 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 ass, it breaks down, or rather burns the sugar within just a short time. that's with all my name. this would have the same effect on living systems. so i could equally burn the surface of my skin and the question for 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 of these organic substances that are by products of amphetamine synthesis, we have not actually been pharmacologic. we studied regardless. so it's not exactly possible to say what toxic effect and they'll likely have very soon talk such a vocal funding, or experts suspect that the drug waste contains carson, a genic 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 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 cartels appear to have been busy expanding their activities in rural areas. young boy goes, meets with a spokes person for the nimble farming community. the under cover investigator wants to know what experience the farmers have had with the mafia. he becomes clear that the gangs 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 what a google farmer received a threatening letter in the letter box, get it read and processed. we know where your children go to school. they can also, we're going to do anything again and we'll talk the problem. in other words, it's also farmers are being blackmail and intimidated into continuing to do this

and even look like is that more 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 tri is put into a huge x ray machine where its contents can be scanned. the, with 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 container itself is also negative. the content of your 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 printing. so the investigators decide to break

open the container mind 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 here that gives rise to suspicion that would justify a more in 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 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 can only get the fraction of the containers thorough check the back in the netherlands. 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. they have got that is the whole c, m, k is a precursor of m d m a, which is the active ingredient in x in x as your next to see, right?

ended up when i ask young people that they know the answer to a and b m. k smells a little bit like a nice the hope is that vigilant residents 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 because he wants to show us another crime scene. so you have sent to you by the to garage is where we were a few months ago. lar, this is where the laboratory was. all the, 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 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 for more children to play here. they're in animals. house patch that might drink from the water? yes, it's very worrying to out. every year the dutch government spend $6000000.00 euros on clean up 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 region. each year the

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the this is dw news line from bell and the killing off at the top, almost official spots, fears the war and gaza could spread liberties, state media, say, and these are highly drones strikes, killed the groups deputy political lead up. israel has not confront whether it is behind the attack. also coming up and investigation begins into tuesday's collision at tokyo staff bolts education safety experts from japan. from center u. k will examine with an ad traffic control negligence led to this.