The European police agency, Europol, on Wednesday announced that it had successfully carried out its "largest ever operation" against synthetic drug producers, delivering a "massive blow" to organized crime in the bloc.

The bust, which was coordinated in Poland and involved police from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain, targeted some 24 industrial-scale labs and netted roughly 1,000 metric tons of chemicals used for making drugs such as MDMA and methamphetamine.

In Germany alone, authorities seized more than 800 kilos of synthetic drugs and some 160,000 liters of toxic chemical waste.

More than 85 individuals were arrested on Wednesday, including two Poles whom authorities identified as possible ringleaders. Some 45 arrests were reportedly carried out in Germany alone.

Operation started when Polish cops became suspicious of chemical imports

The operation began in 2024, when Polish officials became suspicious of large amounts of legal chemicals being imported into the country from China and India.

"These precursors were legal, generally used in the pharmaceutical industry," said Polish police, before noting that the quantities acquired and processed were, "very large" and "unrelated to the actual needs of the companies."

Investigators later found that the chemicals were being repackaged, mislabeled and redistributed across the European Union to labs manufacturing synthetic drugs.

"I think this is genuinely a massive blow to organized crime groups involved in drug trafficking, specifically of synthetic drugs," Andy Kraag, head of Europol's European Serious Organized Crime Center, told the AFP news agency in an interview. 

Europol said it identified 50 delivery locations, dismantled 24 "industrial-scale" laboratories and found 16 storage locations in the operation. It also seized around €500,000 (roughly $580,000), 3.6 tons of drugs and 982 liters of liquid narcotics, as well as seizing more than 1,000 tons of precursors. 

Europol carrying out 'supply chain strategy' to choke off key chemicals

Wednesday's bust was part of Europol's "supply chain strategy" aimed at keeping key chemicals out of the hands of drug producers according to Kraag.

"I've been in this business for a while," he said. "This is by far the largest-ever operation we did against synthetic drug production and distribution."

"These criminals don't have supplies anymore," said Kraag, who also described the network's profit margins as being in the region of a 30-fold return on investment.

Polish authorities said they would continue to closely monitor the amount of precursors entering the country, as well as keeping tabs on those chemicals being misused to make street drugs.

Moving beyond the immediate negative impact of synthetic drugs on health, Kraag went on to outline the violence, corruption and money laundering tied to their production and sale. He said they also had a massive impact on the environment because of the dumping of toxic chemicals into rivers and waterways by drug labs.

Edited by: Mark Hallam