HomeNewsBriefArgentina Busts First Buenos Aires Ecstasy Lab
BRIEF

Argentina Busts First Buenos Aires Ecstasy Lab

ARGENTINA / 27 SEP 2013 BY MARGUERITE CAWLEY EN

Police in Argentina have uncovered a drug lab and seized 200,000 ecstasy tablets and precursor chemicals in Buenos Aires, in a bust that indicates criminals may have begun domestic production to cater for the country's growing party drug market.

According to Security Minister Sergio Berni, the small laboratory is the first synthetic drug laboratory ever found in the capital. It was found to contain 25,000 tablets and the primary materials to produce a further 100,000, reported La Nacion

The bust was one of 15 raids throughout the capital, which turned up a total of 200,000 ecstasy tablets, as well as five guns, cocaine and cash, reported Terra Argentina. According to Berni the materials for the drugs originated in China.

National police arrested the laboratory's owner -- a Spanish national who had previously served prison time in his homeland for similar crimes -- and four other suspects, among them a nightclub bouncer accused of distributing the drugs. Berni said the arrests were the result of a wider police effort to target ecstasy dealers.

InSight Crime Analysis

Argentina has a small, but apparently growing, market for ecstasy. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), it is one of the Latin American countries with the most cocaine, amphetamine and ecstasy users -- along with Uruguay, Chile and Colombia.

A 2011 Argentine government study found that lifetime ecstasy use had risen from 0.3 to 0.7 percent among the general population from 2004 to 2010, and from 0.4 to 1.6 percent among the 25 to 34 age group. Around a quarter of young people said it was easy to obtain. As highlighted by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) 2011 Annual Report, while use in countries such as the UK remains much higher, Argentinean use now far outstrips that of various other European countries, including France. 

Media reports indicate ecstasy sold on the Argentine market is often brought from Europe. In August 2012, Argentine police broke up a European group accused of trafficking ecstasy and other illicit drugs into the country. That same month, a man from the Netherlands -- one of the countries with the highest reported ecstasy seizures in 2011 -- was caught at the Buenos Aires airport with nearly 30,000 tablets. However, the current case indicates that European criminals may be recognizing the potential profits to be made by producing ecstasy within Argentina, rather than bringing it in from abroad. 

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Tags

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ARGENTINA / 14 DEC 2022

Clan Castedo, one of Argentina's most drug trafficking groups, ran the cocaine trade into Bolivia thanks to a network of…

ARGENTINA / 17 AUG 2022

Argentina Judge Sabrina Namer explains why criminal courts should include gender perspectives in their decisions.

ARGENTINA / 19 JUL 2022

Two Argentine restaurateurs residing in Spain are wanted for allegedly using yachts to send cocaine between South America and Europe.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…