03/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - In November 2005 and January 2006, four major production and storage locations for synthetic drugs were raided in Belgium and the Netherlands. Max-Peter Ratzel, Europol Director, explained in a press release: 'The fight against drug trafficking is and will remain a priority for us. This result clearly underlines the added value of Europol in terms of operational analysis and expertise.' The raids were the result of a long-term Dutch-German investigation supported by Europol, the European Joint Unit on Precursors (EJUP) and the Belgian police, exposing significant links between the criminal gang and several synthetic drug related waste dump sites in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. The criminal group was responsible for the production of tonnes of MDMA (ecstasy) and amphetamines. Three of the raided locations were used to store more than 100,000 litres of chemicals and custom-made and industrial equipment for use in factory-scale production.