Number of potentially lethal meth candies unwittingly shared by New Zealand food bank rises to 65

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Police in New Zealand have so far accounted for 41 methamphetamines sealed in candy wrappers — each a potentially lethal amount of the drug — that were unwittingly distributed by an Auckland food bank.

Authorities were in the process of collecting two dozen more tainted candies from members of the public Friday night, police said in a statement, bringing the total number of candies accidentally handed out in food parcels to at least 65. It was not known how many others were driving, Detective Inspector Glenn Baldwin said.

No one was seriously injured by the sweets.

An unknown person donated the candies – which were in packaging from Malaysian confectionary brand Rinda and looked identical to the baked sweets – to the Auckland City Mission over the past six weeks, the charity said on Wednesday. A day earlier, staff frantically began tracking the recipients of up to 400 food parcels after a customer reported a “funny tasting” candy and drug tests revealed the candies were solid methamphetamine.

Three people were treated in hospitals after trying the candies, but were quickly discharged. The “revolting” taste caused most of those who tried the sweets to spit them out immediately, city missionary Helen Robinson said.

The amount of methamphetamine in each candy was up to 300 times the dose someone usually takes and could be fatal, according to the New Zealand Drug Foundation, the drug policy and control organization that tested for the first time the candy.

Ben Birks Ang, a spokesman for the foundation, told a news conference on Wednesday that disguising drugs as harmless goods was a common cross-border smuggling technique and that more of the candy was believed to have been distributed throughout New Zealand.

Rinda Food Industries said its Malaysian factory was inspected by Malaysia’s Ministry of Health on Thursday and samples were collected for laboratory tests.

“We would like to clarify that Rinda Food Industries does not directly export goods to New Zealand,” it said in a statement.

New Zealand authorities still don’t know how many tainted candies were distributed by the Auckland City Mission, or whether the sweets might be showing up elsewhere, Baldwin said. There are approximately 40 Rinda pineapple candies in each retail-sized bag, suggesting that at least two bags were donated to the charity.

The tainted sweets had a street value of NZ$1,000 ($608) per candy, suggesting the donation was accidental rather than a deliberate attack, Birks Ang said on Wednesday. Authorities said they were investigating whether the episode was an importation scheme gone wrong — as well as reports that someone tried to sell one of the sweets on Facebook.

The charity’s food bank only accepts donations of commercially produced food in sealed packages, Robinson said. The pineapple candies, stamped with Rinde’s label, “appeared as such when they were donated,” she added.

Rinda said in a statement Wednesday that the company would cooperate with authorities.

“We want to make it clear that Rinda Food Industries does not use or condone the use of any illegal drugs in our products,” said managing director Steven Teh.

Methamphetamine is a powerful, highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system. It takes the form of a white crystalline powder, odorless, with a bitter taste, which dissolves easily in water or alcohol.