They were caught red-handed, the three Mexicans who produced crystal meth on a boat in Moerdijk . Who their client was, seems to be the question a few days before the start of their trial - next Tuesday.

Have the lab technicians moved forward from notorious Mexican drug cartels who want to storm the European drug market? Or are Brabant pill farmers looking for new revenue models? And they have flown in with external Mexican specialists to show them the tricky final step in the process: crystallizing the meth.

In the trial against the Moerdijk suspects, it is likely that the next week will be purely about this floating lab, the first of its kind in the Netherlands and the role of the suspects. In police and justice circles such a well-defined investigation, in which the large bosses are left out of the picture, is a short blow.

The Mexican suspects deny and have held their lips tight together until now. These are the brothers Victor Manuel (27) and Diego J. (24) from the notorious narcotic state Durango and Candelario VL (37) from Chihuahua.

In those ruthless circles, talking to the law is equivalent to the death penalty, also for family members

The court would like to hear from them what they did on board the Arsianco. But their lawyers expect the men to continue to invoke their right to remain silent.

That silence proves nothing, but in the scenario that the suspects would work for a Mexican cartel is not very surprising.

In the telephones of the Mexicans, the police found a cash book with, among other things, photos of trays full of (produced) crystals, a total of more than 100 kilos. The police think that drugs were made from mid-December until the raid. The telephone traffic would have shown that the Mexicans received instructions from Mexico via the app.

Of course, the police and the judiciary want to know exactly what the role of Mexicans is, who the organizers and clients are. Mexican crystal suspects have also recently been caught in other crystal meth labs - in Wuustwezel and Wateringen. Something structural is going on.

It is not for nothing that a delegation from the Dutch police recently made a working visit to Mexico, where it was driven around in highly secured transport. That is the problem immediately. Mexico is a narco state where supreme drug cartels have infiltrated the police, the judiciary and the administration and where it is difficult for the Dutch judiciary to investigate, let alone gather evidence.