Dutch police dismantled a record number of drugs labs last year and say an increasing proportion are being found in ordinary residential neighbourhoods.

In total, police busted 167 labs where cocaine, heroin, amphetamines and other drugs are being made or processed in 2024, 16 more than the previous year. Of these, 98 were located in apartments or other homes — an increase of around 30%.

Police chief Willem Woelders said criminal gangs are increasingly putting the general population at risk by setting up operations in residential areas. “We’ve seen how badly wrong things can go,” he said, referring to an explosion at a drugs lab in Rotterdam that killed three people in February 2024.

Most of the labs were used to make synthetic drugs, and 47 were producing MDMA — the active ingredient in ecstasy — a rise of 50%. Police also uncovered 20 locations where cocaine was being cut with Novocaine “to maximise profits,” Woelders said.

The police recorded 217 dump sites for chemical waste from drug production, the highest number since 2018. While waste is typically dumped in containers or left in the countryside, gangs in Amsterdam have disposed of it in underground rubbish bins, while in Brabant it has been mixed with manure and spread on fields as fertiliser.

The number of illegal marijuana plantations found fell sharply from 1,230 in 2023 to 895 in 2024, continuing a downward trend. Most plantations — 157 — were located in Limburg.

The decline may reflect a shift in police priorities towards hard drugs, Woelders said. He added that growing imports of marijuana from abroad may have reduced the need for domestic production.

The Telegraaf reported in July last year that ten people had been killed and five injured in explosions and chemical leaks at drugs labs in the Netherlands and just over the border in Belgium in the first six months of 2024.