The drug lab was found on Wednesday morning above a pizzeria and a liquor store on the Poederleeseweg, just outside the village center of Poederlee. The location of the drug lab would not have been known to be suspicious, but the building would have been empty for some time, and neighbors say that they generally saw little movement in and around the buildings.
On Wednesday morning, three people were found dead in the building, a fourth victim was resuscitated and then transferred to hospital. A neighbor and the woman who called emergency services were also taken to hospital. Whether the latter was involved in the drug lab in some way is part of the investigation. The condition of the three injured people is currently unclear. No information has yet been released about the identities of the victims, and the exact cause of death is not yet known.
“You can’t think about it”
What exactly went wrong in the drug lab, and what role the victims may have played, is still being investigated. According to Mayor Marleen Peeters (N-VA), it could have been even worse. “When you hear that it is a drug lab where gases were used, with a gas station next to the building…,” it sounds. “You can’t imagine what else an explosion could have caused. We are shocked as a municipal council. I saw the flashing lights this morning, and you immediately think of a serious traffic accident. But we didn’t see this coming.” (Read more below the photo)
© Joren De Weerdt
The space where the drug lab was located had only just been re-rented. This is what the devastated owner of the building, Kurt, says. His girlfriend was taken to hospital with oxygen poisoning. “The police told us that my girlfriend and I were very lucky. For the same money, we would also have died of oxygen poisoning,” says Kurt.
Rental contract from April 1
Kurt and his girlfriend live on the top floor of the building where the drug lab was discovered in Poederlee on Wednesday morning. “I had already started working at that time. My girlfriend called me in a panic to say that there were many fire brigades and ambulances at the door. Later I was told that she was taken to hospital with oxygen poisoning.”
Kurt owns the building on Poederleeseweg. The space where the drug lab was located had only just been re-rented. “A man came to get the key in mid-March. The lease started to run from April 1. They were supposed to come and sign it this week.”
(Read more below the photo)
© Joren De Weerdt
Neither Kurt nor his girlfriend ever smelled or noticed anything suspicious. “We have never had any problems with the rental to the liquor store and the pizzeria. We also noticed no suspicion among these tenants. We are very shocked by the facts, we did not see this coming at all.”
The circumstances of the tragedy will be further investigated. The public prosecutor’s office has already requested an investigating judge. The facts are provisionally qualified as production of psychotropic substances in combination, resulting in death. In addition to the police, fire brigade and emergency medical services, the judicial laboratory, the medical examiner and the Clan Lab Response Unit of the police also arrived on site, as is usual at a drug lab.
Three people were also killed at the drug lab in Eksel, but no one was held responsible
It is not the first time that deaths have occurred in a drug lab in our country. The deadly incident in Poederlee in Antwerp is almost a copy of what happened in Eksel in January 2019. There, carbon monoxide poisoning killed three men who worked and slept in a poorly ventilated drug lab.
More than four years ago, the Eindhoven police received an anonymous and alarming tip in the middle of the night about a building in Kiefhoekstraat in Eksel. The Dutch, in turn, informed their Belgian colleagues. A patrol from the local Kempenland police went to the scene and came across three lifeless bodies. The first victim lay at the open door of the warehouse. The other two were lying among the chemical barrels.
Investigation showed that the three men aged 22, 23 and 25 died after inhaling CO gases from the synthetic drugs lab that they ran there. The carbon monoxide was the result of poor ventilation, which meant that insufficient fresh air was supplied while the very harmful gases lingered.
The investigation into the deaths of the three people in their twenties from Eindhoven and Valkenswaard led investigators across the border. Sixteen suspects came into view and the Dutch had them arrested. Four people appeared in court, but due to lack of evidence they were all acquitted. The decision was final in May 2022. No one was held responsible for the three deaths in Eksel. (ppn)
© Joren De Weerdt
© Joren De Weerdt