OAN Staff James Meyers
3:13 PM – Friday, August 16, 2024
A food bank in New Zealand is trying to find a stash of potential meth-laced candies that were accidentally distributed to the homeless at a charity event.
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Police in New Zealand have so far accounted for 41 chunks of methamphetamine enclosed in candy wrappers with each one containing a potentially lethal amount of the drug.
The authorities were in the process of collecting two dozen more of the contaminated sweets from members of the public late Friday, police said in a statement. This brings the total number of candies accidentally shared in food parcels to at least 65. It was not known how many more were circulating, Detective Inspector Glenn Baldwin said.
However, no one has been seriously harmed by the candies.
An unidentified person donated the candies, which were in wrappers from the Malaysian confectionery brand Rinda and looked identical to boiled sweets to the Auckland City Mission sometime in the past six weeks, the charity said Wednesday.
A day prior, staff began racking down the recipients of up to 400 food parcels after a client reported a “funny-tasting” sweet and drug testing revealed the candies were solid methamphetamine.
Three people were treated at hospitals for eating the contaminated sweets but have been discharged since. The “revolting” taste led most who tried the sweets to immediately spit them out, City Missioner Helen Robinson said.
The amount of methamphetamine in each candy was up to 300 times the dose someone would usually take and could be lethal, according to the New Zealand Drug Foundation, the drug checking and policy organization that first tasted the sweets.
According to Ben Birks Ang, a foundation spokesperson, disguising drugs as harmless goods is a common cross-border smuggling technique and more of the candies might have been distributed throughout New Zealand.
Furthermore, Rinda Food Industries said its factory in Malaysia was inspected on Thursday by the Malaysian Ministry of Health and gathered samples for laboratory testing.
“We would like to clarify that Rinda Food Industries does not directly export goods into New Zealand,” it said in a statement.
In spite of that, New Zealand authorities still have not clarified how many contaminated candies were distributed by the Auckland City Mission, or the possibility of the contaminated sweets showing up again, Baldwin said. There are an estimated 40 Rinda pineapple candies in each retail-sized bag, while suggesting more than two bags were donated to the charity.
The contaminated treats had a street value of $608 per candy, which means that it was more accidental than deliberate, Birks Ang said Wednesday.
Methamphetamine is a powerful, highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system. It takes the form of a white, odorless, bitter-tasting crystalline powder that easily dissolves in water or alcohol.
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