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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Jonathan Coles

Police raid workshop for MDMA but £900k haul turns out to be 'strawberry Haribo sweets'

Police raided a workshop and discovered what they thought was worth nearly £900,000 of drugs - but the haul turned out to be Haribo.

Officers announced on Twitter that they had found the haul in Saint-Ouen near Paris on Wednesday.

A tweet showing pictures of the 'drugs' - in both powder and pill form - was accompanied by a caption boasting of a successful investigation.

It added that MDMA worth £860,000 (€1million) had been seized, with stolen mobile phones also said to have been found.

But toxicology analysis carried out on Thursday concluded "the powder seized in the apartment was a neutral powder, not falling under either narcotic products or poisonous substance", according to Le Parisien.

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And it has now been revealed that the matter is actually "crushed Tagada strawberries", the newspaper said - made famous by Haribo.

The sweet, also known as 'Fraise Tagada', normally comes in the shape of an inflated pink strawberry and is covered in fine sugar and scented.

Police had initially said the find was the product of a successful investigation (Préfecture de police/AFP via Get)

A suspect is still expected to face prosecution over the stolen phones - but it is unclear what action will be taken over the 'drugs'.

Drug seizures can be misidentified, with authorities in Thailand previously claiming to have seized almost $1billion worth of ketamine - which turned out to be cleaning agent.

Officials discovered the substance in November 2020 and declared it the country's largest ever ketamine bust.

But tests revealed it to actually be trisodium phosphate, a compound used in cleaning agents.

A "technical error" in field testing was blamed for the error, reports the BBC.

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