New Zealand food bank unknowingly distributes sweets with ‘lethal’ drug levels

Wellington: A charity working with homeless people in Auckland, New Zealand, unknowingly distributed lollies filled with a potentially lethal dose of methamphetamine in its food parcels after the sweets were donated by a member of the public.

Auckland City Mission said on Wednesday that staff had started to contact up to 400 people to track down parcels that could contain the sweets – which were solid blocks of methamphetamine enclosed in lolly wrappers. New Zealand’s police have opened a criminal investigation.

The amount of methamphetamine in each lolly was up to 300 times the level someone would usually take and could be lethal, according to the New Zealand Drug Foundation – a drug-checking and policy organisation, which first tested the lollies.

Ben Birks Ang, a foundation spokesperson, said disguising drugs as innocuous goods was a common cross-border smuggling technique and more of the sweets might have been distributed throughout New Zealand.

The sweets had a high street value of $NZ1000 ($915) per lolly, which suggested the donation by an unknown member of the public was accidental, rather than a deliberate attack, Birks Ang said.

City Missioner Helen Robinson said eight families, including at least one child, had reported consuming the contaminated candies since Tuesday. No one was hospitalised, and Robinson said the “revolting” taste meant most had immediately spat them out.

The charity’s food bank only accepted donations of commercially produced food in sealed packaging, Robinson said. The pineapple candies, stamped with the label of Malaysian brand Rinda, “appeared as such when they were donated”, arriving in a retail-sized bag, she added.

Auckland City Mission was alerted on Tuesday by a food bank client who reported a “funny-tasting” lolly. Staff tasted some of the remaining candies and immediately contacted the authorities.