Around 82,000 litres of a so-called “date rape drug” have been seized by the Judiciary Police (PJ), which has dismantled a scheme producing the illicit substance. The drug gang operated in the quiet municipality of Ourique, in the Alentejo region, manufacturing industrial quantities of gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) for the purpose of global exportation.
Because of its chemical similarity, GBL is a “prodrug” of the more widely-known GHB, meaning it is converted into GHB in the body, and its effects are identical. However, it is two to three times as powerful as GHB, and its effects are felt faster. This makes the drug a far greater risk for overdose than GHB, with both drugs having serious downsides from overconsumption, up to and including coma and death.
The substance was stored in large 1,000-litre containers, as well as in numerous smaller bottles.
According to a police source, the now-detained gang, made up of both Portuguese and foreign nationals, acquired a license for the wholesale trade, import, and export of chemical products and detergents. Then, fully aware of the flaws and vulnerabilities in Portugal’s system for inspecting and controlling the export of these products, they exploited them and arranged for the shipment of several thousand litres to illicit markets around the world, using falsified documentation and certificates.
The PJ investigation began around three months ago, in coordination with the Tax and Customs Authority.
In addition to the so-called date rape drug, inspectors also found hundreds of empty, prepared, and labelled bottles in Ourique, ready to be placed on the market under different names. The suspects were exporting the illicit substance disguised as cleaning products.
Searches also led to the seizure of “hundreds of rolls of adhesive labels used to mark the bottles as cleaning products”.
Source: PJ
