MDMA in champagne: Were the people in Weiden victims of a drug deal?

After the fatal consumption of drugs from a champagne bottle in the Upper Palatinate, the investigations are expanding. In the Netherlands – a few days after the poisoning of eight restaurant visitors in Weiden with one dead and seven injured – four people were injured by drinking the liquid ecstasy drug MDMA from a champagne bottle. According to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), the two cases were not the first such drug finds.

In Australia, for example, liquid MDMA was found in smuggled champagne bottles during a border check in 2018, a spokesman said. It was the same brand as recently in Weiden and in the Netherlands, but not the same variety. At that time, the bottles were sent by air from Europe to Australia.

The Federal Criminal Police Office had “no knowledge that champagne bottles were being used to smuggle liquid MDMA in Europe,” said the BKA spokesman. However, organized gangs repeatedly tried to smuggle drugs, sometimes in “very unconventional methods”, including in beverage bottles.

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MDMA in champagne bottles: Were the people of Weiden victims of a drug deal?

The question of whether people in Weiden and the Netherlands were victims of such a drug deal is currently “part of the investigation,” said a police spokeswoman. In both cases, according to the manufacturer Moët Hennessy, the “Moët & Chandon” brand bottles had been ordered online by private individuals and both bottles belonged to the same batch. The champagne was removed before the liquid MDMA was poured in. Moët Hennessy Germany announced that they are cooperating “fully” with the authorities and supporting them in the investigation.

After the poisoning in the Netherlands, the food authority NVWA issued a warning for affected three-liter bottles of the “Moët & Chandon Ice Impérial” brand. Even the smallest amounts could cause serious damage, the authority warned. One should not touch the content, let alone try it. “Ingesting a small sip can be fatal.”

Moët Hennessy Germany pointed out in a statement that liquid MDMA “neither looks like champagne nor has the properties of champagne”. The drug does not pearl, has a reddish-brown color that darkens over time, and smells like anise.

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