The Civil Guard has dismantled a clandestine workshop with nearly 500 kilos of material to make explosives in an isolated farmhouse in Montmajor (Berguedà). A 41-year-old man has been arrested accused of illegally manufacturing explosives by mixing precursors and chemical substances, which he acquired over the Internet.
In total, 468 kilos of explosive precursors and chemical products have been confiscated, apart from the fuse and 2.2 kilos of finished explosive mixture. The Civil Guard, which has baptized the operation as ‘Termes’, highlights that it is one of the largest seizures of explosives precursors made in Spain.
The investigation began exactly one year ago when agents of the Civil Guard found out, through the Intelligence Center against Terrorism and Organized Crime (CITCO), of a suspicious transaction of explosives precursors through a platform of online trade
The agents managed to identify a man who lived in an isolated farmhouse in Berguedà who purchased large quantities of precursors, fuses, electrical equipment and numerous laboratory materials over the Internet. After obtaining judicial authorization, the Benemérita registered the address of the person under investigation and located 348 kilos of regulated explosives precursors and 119 kilos of chemical substances also used to illegally manufacture explosives. Members of TEDAX took charge of analyzing and destroying the material.
The clandestine Montmajor workshop was equipped with machinery and laboratory material such as mattresses and test tubes of different capacities, an electric blanket, magnetic stirrers, vacuum pumps, flow controllers, a still for distillation and an increase in the degree of concentration of chemical compounds. , thermometers and precision scales and even a gas mask to protect yourself from dangerous chemical fumes.
With the precursor substances and chemical products seized, different types of explosive mixtures could be made, such as gunpowder or triacetone triperoxide, popularly known as ‘the mother of Satan’, commonly used by Islamist terrorists, very dangerous and highly destructive.
