Romania's first secondary cocaine extraction laboratory was discovered in Bihor county and shut down.

The Romanian Police and the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) announced on Tuesday morning, July 12, that a cocaine extraction laboratory had been identified in Bihor county.

The laboratory was set up in an isolated cottage, where the drug was being extracted from coffee by chemical means.

DIICOT found that at the beginning of June, an organized criminal group was formed consisting of two Romanians, an Israeli, and two Colombians, with the aim of importing, making, and selling high-risk drugs on Romanian territory.

This group carried out its criminal activity without interruption from the moment of its establishment until July 10.

Between June 30 and July 6, the members of the criminal group purchased everything they needed to carry out drug extraction operations. They also identified and rented a hut in Bihor county, far away from other inhabitants, where they could carry out their plans in peace.

On July 10, a number of prosecutors from DIICOT and police officers from the Anti-Drug Service carried out a large-scale operation to dismantle the criminal group.

As part of the operation, a house search was executed, and all four men were caught in the process of extracting the cocaine from coffee.

The house search resulted in the discovery and seizure of a one-kilogram pressed pack containing procaine, 148 grams of brown cocaine, which had not undergone the crystallization process, and a mixture of cocaine and coffee weighing 5 kilograms.

Also identified were various plastic containers used to extract cocaine, approximately 40 liters of brown substance, constituting a mixture of chemicals typical for extracting cocaine from ground coffee, one liter of acetone, a 20-liter canister of petrol, and 10 sealed bags of coffee.

The market value of the cocaine they seized is approximately EUR 200,000.

maia@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: DIICOT press release)