Half a tonne of methamphetamine found in Lithuanian drug laboratory

More than half a tonne of methamphetamine, several hundred kilogrammes of amphetamine and large quantities of other drugs and their precursors have been found in a drug laboratory uncovered in Lithuania.

Saulius Briginas, deputy head of the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau (LKPB), announced the findings on Wednesday while presenting details of a pre-trial investigation.

“During the operation, more than 500kg of the psychotropic substance methamphetamine, 300kg of amphetamine, around 4.5kg of synthetic cathinones, and around 300 litres of phenyl-2-propanone – a key precursor used in the production of psychotropic substances, also known as BMK – were found in the laboratory and seized,” he said.

He described the laboratory where the substances were discovered as “one of the largest” in Lithuania and the Baltic states. According to Briginas, amphetamine and methamphetamine were being produced there on what he described as an almost industrial scale.

Briginas said the quantity of drugs seized amounted to more than four million individual doses. Because of the size of the laboratory, searches took more than three days, with dozens of officers involved in the operation.

“The investigation also established that drugs manufactured in this laboratory could have been supplied to other European countries, including the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Belgium,” the deputy head of the Criminal Police Bureau said.

The operation also thwarted a planned attempt to smuggle the substances out of the country.

“A shipment containing 17kg of crystalline methamphetamine was intercepted at a Lithuanian logistics company, and the drugs were seized,” Briginas said.

Rolandas Imbrasas, a prosecutor with the Organised Crime and Corruption Investigation Division of the Vilnius Regional Prosecutor’s Office, said four people had been charged in the case with possessing a very large quantity of psychotropic substances as members of an organised group.