“secondary extraction” labs have been detected in Spain EU faces new frontiers on drug trafficking

FT.com / Brussels - EU faces new frontiers on drug trafficking: "Elaborate methods of smuggling cocaine and a record number of new unregulated drugs are challenging drug control policies in Europe, where about 1,000 cocaine-related deaths are reported a year, according to the European Union’s drug agency.
Traffickers are increasingly using exports such as clothes, plastics and fertilisers to smuggle cocaine base which is then extracted in clandestine laboratories, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction said on Wednesday.
High time to legalise marijuana - Oct-27Top Mexican trafficker captured - Aug-31Focus on gangs after Gambia cocaine raid - Jun-09A number of these “secondary extraction” labs have been detected in Spain – 25 in 2008 – together with the UK, Denmark, Ireland and Italy, the countries where cocaine use is most prevalent.
In the UK, the number of death certificates citing cocaine doubled from 161 in 2003 to 325 in 2008, according to Lisbon-based EMCDDA, which collects and analyses information for European policymakers."