CARACAS, Friday October 30, 2009 | Update
Politics
The Spanish National Police dismantled in a farm what it called the largest cocaine laboratory ever found in Spain over the past few years.
The site manufactured 50 kilograms of drug a week, reported on Friday the Spanish Ministry of the Interior.
The move resulted in the detention of 11 alleged members of a criminal gang. Eight of them were engaged in the drug manufacturing when the operations special team (GEO) broke into the farm located in Daimiel, reported the police in a press release, quoted by Reuters.
The drug came from Venezuela covered as powdered cacao. In Spain, it was recovered by means of complex filtering processes, he explained.
During the action, more than eight tons of chemical substances and 275 kilograms of related substances were found, in addition to hydraulic presses, molds, and five engraved plates.
"Operation Tablas has been especially effective, because the laboratory had been operating for one month only," the police said.
04:20 PM. Western Hemisphere. Colombian President Álvaro Uribe said on Tuesday that governments should ensure citizens' rights to live on the border, in reference to a political and diplomatic crisis with Venezuela and its effects on border residents.