Potentially deadly Police collect more drug sweets in New Zealand
Following the unknowing distribution of drugs in the form of supposed sweets by a food bank in the New Zealand city of Auckland, the number of sweets has increased to 65. It is unclear how many are still in circulation, police officer Glenn Baldwin said on Friday. Police said they were in the process of collecting sweets from residents.
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- Candies containing potentially lethal amounts of methamphetamine have been distributed in food parcels to people in need in New Zealand.
- Police are collecting the sweets from residents.
- The sweets were donated anonymously to a charity organization.
The quantities of the drug methamphetamine found in the sweets were potentially lethal, according to the New Zealand Drug Foundation, which carried out the tests. The fake sweets are said to have been accidentally included in food parcels.
No one has been seriously harmed so far. The sweets had been donated to a charity by an unknown person sometime in the past six weeks, the Auckland City Mission said on Wednesday. They were wrapped in paper from the Malaysian candy brand Rinda.
Strange taste
Staff at the charity tried to trace the recipients of up to 400 food parcels after customers reported a strange taste and a drug test revealed the sweets were made of methamphetamine. Three people are said to have been treated in hospital after eating the sweets.
Ben Birks Ang from the New Zealand Drug Foundation said on Wednesday that making drugs look like harmless goods is a well-known tactic in drug smuggling across national borders. The sweets may have been distributed throughout New Zealand. The drug sweets were worth 1000 New Zealand dollars (around 520 Swiss francs) each. The donation was therefore probably made by mistake.
dpa