Ecstasy instead of bubbly: arrest after death
At a party, several people drink from a bottle of champagne, which results in a death and several people are injured. The bottle contains a highly concentrated drug. Now a man is arrested.
Following the fatal incident involving a bottle of champagne laced with drugs in Weiden in the Upper Palatinate in February last year, investigators have arrested a suspect. The 35-year-old was arrested in the Netherlands after initially fleeing and was identified as an urgent suspect in cooperation with the Dutch and Polish authorities, according to the Weiden public prosecutor's office.
He is accused of gang trafficking in narcotics in not insignificant quantities, negligent bodily harm and negligent homicide. The suspect is said to have been responsible for storing the bottled narcotics in the Netherlands and for ensuring that the bottles reached third parties. He has now been brought before the investigating judge at Weiden Local Court, who ordered the warrant to be executed. The man has not yet commented on the charge.
In February 2022, a man died and seven other people were injured in Weiden after drinking from a champagne bottle in a pub. Chemical tests later revealed that the three-liter bottle contained highly concentrated ecstasy. The champagne manufacturer itself assumed at the time that it was a case of drug smuggling.
Ecstasy in three-liter bottles
Investigators traced the route of the champagne bottle served on the night of February 13, 2022, as well as other bottles filled with narcotics, back to the Netherlands. The bottles had recently been resold several times by several people who apparently did not know the true contents. This is how one of the champagne bottles ended up in Weiden. The investigation against the accused is therefore continuing, also with regard to potential accomplices, as the public prosecutor's office explained.
Because of the drugged champagne, the authorities in Germany and the Netherlands had called for particular caution at the time and warned that touching or drinking the contents of the bottles in question was "life-threatening". The three-liter bottles filled with the drug, also known as MDMA, were indistinguishable from bottles filled with champagne from the outside. However, the contents differed in smell and color from normal champagne.
The investigation into the case of the drugged champagne in Weiden, resulting in international cooperation, has led to the arrest of a suspect accused of gang trafficking in ecstasy, negligent bodily harm, and negligent homicide. Following the death and injuries at a party where ecstasy was found in a champagne bottle, accusations have been made against individuals involved in the production and distribution of the drug, demonstrating the international scope of drug-related crimes and the potential danger of substances like ecstasy.
Source: www.ntv.de
