Five Mexican men have been charged after a meth lab was uncovered in a remote part of the Warwickshire countryside.
Alejandro Ambriz Dimas, 45, Victor Ramirez, 47, Fausto Beltran, 33, Lioncio Moso Borja, 37, and Jose Nunez Angolo, 44, have been accused of conspiracy to produce methamphetamine.
The men were detained after a farm property near the small village of Furnace End was raided by National Crime Agency (NCA) officers on August 13.
They initially appeared at Coventry Magistrates’ Court before being remanded into custody.
The Mexican nationals are due to appear at Warwickshire Crown Court on Thursday.
Four of the men are from the Sinaloa region of the Latin American country – with Dimas being from the southern state of Michoacan.
Warwickshire Police, West Midlands Fire Service and West Midlands Ambulance Service all assisted in the raid, alongside the NCA.
The Mexican state of Sinaloa is home to the the country’s most powerful drug cartel.
The men were detained after a farm property near the small village of Furnace End was raided by NCA officers
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NCA
The Sinaloa Cartel was once led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, believed to have been one of the most powerful drug bosses in history.
He has been linked to tens of thousands of deaths across the globe.
After escaping from a Mexican prison in 2001, he lived as fugitive for more than 14 years before finally being snared by authorities in 2015.
El Chapo made another daring escape while in custody after his criminal associates dug a tunnel under the prison and into his cell.
The Mexican nationals are due to appear at Warwickshire Crown Court on Thursday
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PA
He was re-captured just months later and extradited to the US, where he was convicted of a host of offences and sentence to life in prison.
Since returning to the White House last year, Donald Trump has declared war on the cartels, accusing Central American drug traffickers of killing anywhere from 250,000 to 300,000 Americans each year.
The US President told Fox News: “You have to do something with Mexico. We’re going to have to do something.
“We’d love Mexico to do it, they’re capable of doing it, but unfortunately, the cartels are very strong in Mexico.”
While meth is widely used in other parts of the world, it is rarely seen on the streets of Britain
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GETTY
While meth is widely used in other parts of the world, including Eastern Europe, South East Asia, South Africa, Australia and the US, it is rarely seen on the streets of Britain.
“The prevalence has been pretty much confined to the male gay scene and even within that what you might call the heavy-end party scene of injecting crystal meth and promiscuous sexual activity,” Harry Shapiro of the charity Drugscope previously told the BBC.
In November 2014, Professor Ellis Cashmore from Staffordshire University said the global success of TV series Breaking Bad could be attributed to the rise in the drug’s popularity across the world.
Meth is a highly addictive synthetic chemical, with devastating side effects such as severe psychosis and an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.