On the Brink of Disaster

Amateur drug cooks mix a chemical bomb in a residential neighborhood

Scenes reminiscent of the popular American TV series “Breaking Bad,” featuring two drug cooks in the lead roles, unfolded in the middle of a densely populated area in Vienna. Investigators put an end to the highly dangerous operations.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Martin Jöchl, AP/Ursula Coyote, stock.adobe.com)

Apartment buildings, a playground, public housing—a bustling residential neighborhood in Vienna apparently narrowly escaped disaster. Two amateur drug cooks were messing around with highly dangerous chemicals from Poland that could be explosive if mixed incorrectly. The “poison lab” was disguised as a foosball basement...

Just like in the famous American TV series “Breaking Bad,” two welfare recipients wanted to break into the drug trade in a big way with the help of a Polish woman who had access to highly dangerous chemicals in her home country. The investigation by the Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office is explosive, as the would-be drug lords set up their “poison lab” in the middle of a bustling residential neighborhood with apartment buildings and public housing in Vienna’s Leopoldstadt district.

To this end, they rented a 200-square-meter basement space originally intended as a foosball club. Then the suspects, aged 39 and 42, ordered dozens of liters of five different chemicals, some of which are also used in bomb-making. These included highly toxic mercury chloride, methanol, and corrosive sulfuric acid.

Amateurs tampered with highly dangerous toxins
The amateurish hobby drug cooks intended to use these to produce crystal meth or speed. The danger: just one milligram too much or mixed incorrectly could trigger a devastating explosion. “Either they would have poisoned a string of addicts with the substance due to incorrect dosing, or blown themselves and half the house up,” an investigator puts it bluntly.

Because things got too hot for the two criminal amateurs in the densely populated area, they wanted to set up a second drug lab in a secluded farmhouse in southern Lower Austria.

The highly dangerous and explosive “drug lab” was hidden in the 200-square-meter basement of a foosball club.(Bild: stock.adobe.com null)

“Poison lab” blown up, firearms seized
But it never came to that! Investigators from the Lower Austrian State Criminal Police Office (LKA NÖ), the Cobra unit, and specialists in protective suits put an end to the dangerous activities—and arrested the trio. During the raid, the “poison lab” and two firearms stolen during a burglary in Lower Austria were seized.

“Junkies” have been coming and going here for a year now. Ambulances are called repeatedly, and even door locks have been tampered with.

Ein Anrainer des Drogenlabors beim „Krone“-Lokalaugenschein

During the “Krone” newspaper’s on-site visit to the residential neighborhood with a playground, the massive operation is still the talk of the town. “Junkies have been coming and going here for a year now,” says a neighbor. Another resident found a chemical canister in the courtyard. Since rooms and objects are contaminated, the building, located not far from the Danube Canal, may need to be completely renovated.