Autumn 2024. Barcelona. A port terminal. Cargo containers are inspected by two dozen customs officers and armed police. A lift truck removes metal drums. A man wearing gloves and a gas mask pours a sample into a glass vial.
This is Operation Vial, which started back in 2022. Spanish law enforcement agencies reported that they had uncovered a trail for supplying Russia with a banned chemical. They seized 13 tons.
The reagent could be a precursor for the production of chemical weapons, according to Spanish National Police. Radio Free Europe suggestad that it could be used to produce intercontinental ballistic missiles and batteries for Russia’s top-secret Losharik submarine.
Who is the merchant?
The Russian company Katrosta Reaktiv reportedly received about 15 tons of NMP valued at around $330,000 from VLATE Lahistyk in 2023. This was almost the entire volume of solvents imported by Katrosta Reaktiv that year. In total, 74 tons of chemicals worth about $800,000 were supplied to the company in 2023–2024 under the commodity code that includes NMP. It cannot be stated with certainty that all shipments were NMP, as other chemicals fall under the same classification.
According to bank records, between 2023 and 2024 Katrosta Reaktiv supplied $1.3 million worth of NMP to the pharmaceutical company JSC “PharmFirma Sotex” and the FSUE Moscow Endocrine Plant. The exact quantities are unclear, since the financial records only indicate transaction amounts, not volume.
Organizations linked to the Russian defense sector also appear among the company’s clients in 2022–2024. These include the 18th Central Research Institute, associated with military intelligence, the Scientific Research Institute of Applied Acoustics, sanctioned by the United States for purchasing chemicals that can be used in chemical weapons, and the State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology, which both the United States and European Union identify as the developer of the Novichok poison. Traces of this substance were found in the blood of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny after his poisoning.
It cannot be confirmed that all these clients purchased NMP, since bank documents often omit the specific type of reagents bought. Altogether, Katrosta Reaktiv supplied chemicals worth approximately $65,000.