Training together in Belgium: How do police officers dismantle illicit synthetic drugs labs?

In the first week of October Europol, CEPOL and the Belgian Federal Police organised a follow-up training course on dismantling illicit synthetic drug laboratories at the Campus Vesta training centre in Emblem, Belgium. This year the course was attended by 21 participants from 15 EU Member States and Colombia. The participants had the chance to carry out a series of practical exercises under real-life conditions, including a simulated illicit synthetic drug laboratory environment.

One of the main aims of this course is to better understand how synthetic drugs are produced and the methodology and risks which can be encountered by law enforcement and forensic officers during the dismantling of illicit synthetic drug laboratories.

The training course was led by experts from Europol’s Drug Team together with colleagues from Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland.

The objectives of the course were to:

• recognise production methods of illicit drugs, especially synthetic substances;
• identify production equipment/chemicals seized in production units;
• implement precautions and safety measures to protect colleagues during raid operations on illicit drug laboratories, including the decontamination process;
• plan and organise future raids as well as the collection of evidence;
• understand the new trends and developments in the area of synthetic drugs.