‘Visibly startled’ garden gnome made of ecstasy found in Netherlands drugs raid
Police found a garden gnome weighing nearly 2kg and made of the drug ecstasy during a raid in the Netherlands.
The gnome was found among a stash of narcotics and seized by officers in the southern province of Noord-Brabant during a large drug search.
“Drugs appear in many shapes and sizes, but every now and then we come across special things,” the Dongemond regional police said in a social media post.
They said the garden gnome was “in a strange place”, prompting them to test it for narcotics.
The statue was then found to be made entirely of MDMA. The Netherlands remains one of the world’s top producers of MDMA, which is a synthetic party drug also known as Ecstasy.
The police added that the “gnome himself was visibly startled”, referring to the figure’s hands covering its mouth.
A Dutch government commission set up to look at MDMA concluded earlier this year that the drug is “relatively safe”, with users experiencing little long-term health damage and a low incidence of addiction.
However, the commission also recommended it should remain on the government’s official list of hard drugs because of its links to organised crime.
“Some 90 per cent to 99 per cent of the MDMA produced in the Netherlands is exported to other countries,” Brigit Toebe, the Dutch State Commission chair, said in June, suggesting that moving it to the soft drugs list would “become more attractive for criminals to produce MDMA here. Crime is really a big problem”.
‘Hidden in cat food’
It is not the first time someone has attempted to hide Ecstasy in unusual packaging.
Last year, a Scottish man was jailed for more than four years for trying to smuggle over £84,000 worth of MDMA that was hidden in cat food into the country.
A Leeds man was also previously charged over a plot to smuggle 90kg (198lb) of the drug into the UK hidden inside pallets of frozen chicken, according to the BBC.