WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A charity working with homeless people in Auckland, New Zealand, unknowingly distributed candy containing a potentially fatal dose of methamphetamine in its food parcels after the candy was donated by a member of the public.
The Auckland City Mission told reporters on Wednesday that staff had begun contacting up to 400 people to trace packages that might contain the candy – which was found to be solid blocks of methamphetamine in candy wrappers. New Zealand police have launched a criminal investigation.
The amount of methamphetamine in each candy was up to 300 times the amount normally ingested and could be fatal, according to the New Zealand Drug Foundation, a drug control and policy organization that first tested the candy.
Ben Birks Ang, a spokesman for the foundation, said hiding drugs as harmless goods was a common method of cross-border smuggling and that more of the sweets may have been distributed across New Zealand.
The street value of the sweets was NZ$1,000 (US$608) each, suggesting the donation by an unknown assailant was an accident rather than a deliberate attack, Birks Ang said.
City Commissioner Helen Robinson said eight families, including at least one child, have reported eating the contaminated candy since Tuesday. No one has been hospitalized, and Robinson said the “disgusting” taste caused most to spit the candy out immediately.
The charity’s food bank only accepts donations of industrially produced food in sealed packaging, Robinson said. The pineapple candies, which bore the label of Malaysian brand Rinda, “looked like that when donated” and came in a retail-sized bag, she added.
Auckland City Mission was alerted on Tuesday by a food bank customer who reported “funny tasting” candy. Staff sampled some of the remaining candy and immediately contacted authorities.
The candies were donated sometime in the last six weeks, Robinson said. It is unclear how many were distributed during that time and how many contained methamphetamine.
Among those receiving the food parcels were clients of the charity’s addiction services, and the news that drugs had been distributed had caused great dismay.
“To say we are devastated would be an understatement,” Robinson said, adding that the food bank, which distributes packages five days a week, was closed Wednesday.
