Over half a tonne of methamphetamine found in Lithuanian drug laboratory
Officials of Lithuania's Criminal Police Bureau said a laboratory described as one of the largest in Lithuania and the Baltic states contained over 500 kg of methamphetamine. Four people have been charged.
More than 500 kilogrammes of methamphetamine, about 300 kilogrammes of amphetamine and other narcotic substances have been seized from a drug laboratory uncovered in Lithuania. Saulius Briginas, deputy head of the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau (LKPB), announced this on Wednesday while presenting details of a pre-trial investigation. He described the facility as one of the largest in Lithuania and the Baltic states, producing amphetamine and methamphetamine on an almost industrial scale.
What was seized
Briginas said the laboratory also held around 4.5 kg of synthetic cathinones and about 300 litres of phenyl-2-propanone, known as BMK, a key precursor used in making psychotropic substances. The total amount of drugs seized equals more than four million individual doses.
Because of the laboratory's size, searches lasted over three days and involved dozens of officers.
Possible destinations and an intercepted shipment
Investigators established that drugs made at the site could have been supplied to other European countries, including the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Belgium. The operation also stopped a planned attempt to move the substances out of Lithuania: a shipment of 17 kg of crystalline methamphetamine was intercepted at a Lithuanian logistics company and seized.
Charges
Rolandas Imbrasas, a prosecutor with the Organised Crime and Corruption Investigation Division of the Vilnius Regional Prosecutor's Office, said four people have been charged. They are accused of possessing a very large quantity of psychotropic substances as members of an organised group.
