Belgian police raid drug lab near base storing US nuclear arsenal

Officers discover illegal lab near secretive Kleine Brogel base

The lab raided by police in Limburg was found to be producing MDMA, a synthetic recreational drug commonly known as ecstasy. AFP

Belgian police have raided an illegal lab producing the drug ecstasy outside an airbase where part of the US nuclear arsenal in Europe is stored, investigators said on Tuesday.

A prosecutor's office statement said the secret lab had been found within the perimeter of Kleine Brogel base in the Belgian province of Limburg.

But the Belgian Defence Ministry later clarified that the raid had taken place “on former military land, near the base”.

The Kleine Brogel base in north-east Belgium is best known for its supposed stock of US nuclear weapons.

Belgian officials are discreet about the site, having briefly confirmed its role in the 1980s, but in 2019, a Green MP told Parliament that US forces have 10 to 20 warheads stored there.

Prosecutors said local police had discovered the drug lab on June 22 and that it had been dismantled by specialist federal officers.

The lab was found to be producing MDMA, a synthetic recreational drug commonly known as ecstasy.

The Kleine Brogel airbase is often a target of Belgian anti-nuclear and anti-Nato protesters.

It lies in a rural area between the port city of Antwerp and the border with Germany's industrial heartland.