Spanish police have arrested 10 people and seized 70kg of methamphetamine after discovering a “highly sophisticated” synthetic drug laboratory capable of producing up to 10kg of meth a day.

The Guardia Civil operation – named Heisenberg VI-Cabarna in an apparent reference to the alias adopted by the meth-making protagonist of the TV series Breaking Bad – began in February last year after officers noticed that an individual in the Basque province of Bizkaia was receiving drugs from a criminal gang based in Catalonia.

Their investigation was complicated by the fact that the mobile lab producing the drugs could be transported over long distances across northern Spain, moving from the Basque Country to Castilla y León and then to Catalonia, where it was finally seized.

When the Guardia Civil traced the lab to a property in the city of Granollers, 30km (20 miles) north of Barcelona, they found an elaborate and potentially lethal facility, complete with charcoal filters to get rid of any smells that could attract attention.