Dutch police have arrested three men from Mexico, Colombia and the US in a raid on a drugs lab in the Gelderland village of Achter Drempt.

The arrests took place on Friday when police in protective gear raided the lab in a farm shed in the village of some 350 people. They found chemicals capable of making drugs – crystal meth – with a street value of some €10m.

‘We know drugs gangs operate internationally, and that Dutch people are sometimes arrested abroad,’ spokesman Thomas Aling told local broadcaster Omroep Nederland. ‘But this is the first time we have picked up three people from different countries, with no Dutch national among them.’

Police said in February that they have been busting an increasing number of crystal meth labs, probably because it is more expensive than ecstasy or amphetamines. Last year police broke up nine crystal meth labs, compared with seven in 2018. Two were bust in the first two months of this year.