Free Little Men - The E Book by Ronnie Yax Page A

competitive market. The Netherlands was awash with would-be chemists setting up illicit ecstasy factories to supply the growing demand across Europe and beyond.
    Henrik had been manufacturing ecstasy a long time, almost ten years. He had regular customers with whom he had a good working relationship. He knew supplying just one dud batch could jeopardise an association, possibly forever.
    The night ’ s production had been a complete success. Henrik examined one of the pills he ’ d just created. A ‘ blue Motorola ’ . He had been experimenting with coloured dyes of late, and had achieved a beautiful cobalt speckled effect. A true work of art he thought to himself as he peered at the tablet under the light.
    Like all good entrepreneurs Henrik understood the importance of altering and improving his product in line with the demands of the market. The kaleidoscope of dyes did nothing to change the potency of the tablets, but he also varied production techniques and the ratio of the chemical ingredients. This allowed him to invent the different varieties which had their own identity, the ironic names shamelessly stolen from a large corporate brand. It also served the dual purpose of throwing the police off the scent as it would be harder to trace their origin if they were seized. Staying one step ahead of the authorities was essential to everyone in Henrik ’ s line of business.
    Henrik ’ s operation was as ingenious as it was efficient. He ran a legitimate perfume-manufacturing company, but nothing to rival Calvin Klein or Yves Saint Laurent. It produced the cheap stuff sold on market stalls or in budget shops. The business did reasonably well, but it wasn ’ t important to make a huge profit as it was merely just a front for his criminal activities. The organisation, Dynamisch Internationaal, allowed Henrik to import the main raw ingredient needed to make ecstasy.
    Factories in China converted the bark of the Sassafras tree into the chemical piperonyl, the active ingredient. Henrik then shipped the substance into the Netherlands under the guise of using it for the legitimate manufacture of perfume. Indeed, some of it genuinely was used for that purpose, but the majority of Henrik ’ s piperonyl would be mixed with other chemicals to create 3-4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) powder. The powder would then be crushed into solid tablets at Henrik ’ s lab. Finally, the logo was stamped onto the pill to identify it.
    Once the Es had dried and hardened sufficiently, they would be packaged into plastic bags to sell. Each bag usually contained 1000 tablets. This was sold for around £800 each. The buyer could sell them on for whatever mark-up he wanted and distribute them by whatever means necessary in his country. This was not Henrik ’ s concern, although his operation was ultimately governed by the laws of supply and demand on the dance floors of the raves and clubs across the world.
    Henrik ’ s factory made approximately ten kilos of MDMA powder per week, enough to produce a million pills, which were then sold to customers across Europe. This morning Henrik had completed his final batch of the week, and was preparing to package them to sell.
    The last of Henrik ’ s helpers left the laboratory for the morning, and it was time to shut everything down. He made sure all the electricity was switched off and the flames from the gas burners had fully extinguished. Once they ’ d cooled down sufficiently, he removed the large 22-litre glass flasks and the clear, spherical containers and carefully placed them in an industrial cleaner. He deftly brushed off the burnt residue from the ceramic stirring plate, and sprayed it with a cleansing product, then wiped it, leaving it spotlessly clean.
    Finally, he drained the remainder of the valuable piperonyl liquid into its glass container and made sure the plastic lid was screwed on tightly. He replaced it on the chemical storage shelf in its place among rows and rows of