SICKENING

Luxury Champagne Bottles Filled with Liquid Ecstasy Kill 1, Poison 11 Across Europe

A 52-year-old man died in Germany after consuming a glass of Moët & Chandon Ice Impérial laced with MDMA. Authorities suspect the handiwork of drug smugglers.

Luxury champagne bottles filled with liquid ecstasy killed a man and sickened a dozen people across Europe last month, with authorities warning that there could be more bottles still in circulation. A group of friends in Germany were left experiencing “seizure”-like symptoms, including “foaming at the mouth,” after consuming a double-magnum bottle of Moët & Chandon Ice Impérial in February, the Daily Mail reported. The drink killed 52-year-old Harald Georg Z, according to German police, who took “a large sip of the champagne.” A forensic investigation in Germany found that there was “no champagne” in the tainted bottle, according to German outlet Bild; rather, it was filled with “the chemical substance MDMA.” A police spokesperson said the liquid “was reddish-brown and quickly darkened,” with police reports suggesting the three-liter bottle contained roughly a thousand times the average dose of ecstasy. A further four people had to be hospitalized in the Netherlands after splitting a Moët bottle worth more than $400, the NL Times reported. Dutch authorities have speculated drug smugglers may be behind the affected bottles.