Belgium seizes fake chocolate bunny crafted from solid lump of MDMA in customs sting
Putting the E in Easter: Belgium seizes fake chocolate bunny made from a solid lump of MDMA in customs sting
- Belgium has now become an arena for mail-order synthetic drugs
- The fake chocolate bunnies were packaged and mailed in Belgium, addressed to a buyer in Hong Kong
A batch of Easter bunnies seized by veteran customs officer Pol Meuleneire was made from a lump of MDMA – the raw essence of the party drug, ecstasy.
Known as the gateway to Europe for Latin American cocaine, Belgium has now also become an arena for mail-order synthetic drugs, made in Europe and shipped worldwide.
The fake chocolate bunnies were packaged and posted in Belgium, addressed to a buyer in Hong Kong, only to be intercepted at the Brussels airport cargo terminal.
Using a scanner that uses Raman spectroscopy to identify substances by their chemical fingerprint, Meuleneire took a measurement against a chocolate rabbit.
The screen flashed green and the analysis was clear: ‘Attention: MDMA (ecstasy)’.
This photo, taken on April 6, 2023, at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, shows a package of images with ecstasy
A Belgian customs officer opens a bottle of ecstasy pills while checking packages at Brussels Airport in Zaventem on April 6, 2023
A Belgian customs officer uses a “Raman” scanner to check what appears to be a chocolate bunny at Brussels Airport in Zaventem on April 6, 2023
‘So you see? It’s pure MDMA,” said the 61-year-old, according to France24. “So here we have, bump, a kilo or two of this. With one kilo you make six thousand ecstasy pills.’
Several more shipments of illegal drugs came in last week from packages received in the past week.
A Peppa Pig lunch box intended for New Zealand itself turned out to be harmless, but the packaging in which it was transported was a different story.
Inside a corrugated cardboard package dispenser was ketamine, an anesthetic and sedative for horses, abused as a recreational drug and one of the fastest growing illegal exports through the airport’s mail depot.
A Belgian customs officer opens a package with bedding, the box contains MDMA
A Belgian customs officer finds crystal meth in children’s toys at Brussels Airport in Zaventem on April 6, 2023
A Belgian customs officer uses a “Raman” scanner to check what appears to be a chocolate bunny at Brussels Airport in Zaventem on April 6, 2023
A Belgian customs officer opens a bottle of ecstasy pills while checking packages at Brussels Airport in Zaventem on April 6, 2023
This photo taken on April 6, 2023 at Brussels Airport in Zaventem shows ecstasy pills
A Belgian customs officer inspects what appears to be a chocolate bunny at Brussels Airport in Zaventem on April 6, 2023
A Belgian customs officer opens a bottle of ecstasy pills while checking packages at Brussels Airport in Zaventem
A children’s chemistry kit to study the growth of crystals was found to contain a shrink-wrapped bag of crystal meth, an illegal and addictive synthetic stimulant.
The bulk of mail-order exports are synthetic drugs made in rogue laboratories and secret pharmaceutical factories in Belgium and most importantly, according to Belgian officials, in the Netherlands.
Ketamine, MDMA and methamphetamine are disguised in everyday objects or packaged in jars labeled legal vitamin supplements, then shipped from regular post offices in Belgium, France and Germany.
“Here we are mainly talking about the use of the Belgian post, which may attract less attention from customs officials in the countries of arrival than the Dutch one,” a customs official told AFP.
“The smugglers use mules to transport the packages and post them from all over Belgium and other European countries and send them around the world.”