Police have warned people to take care before tucking into chocolate boxes this Christmas as criminal gangs have laced sweets with drugs in similar sounding containers
Brits have been given an urgent warning before diving into boxes of Quality Street, Celebrations and Aero Minis this Christmas as some chocolates have been laced with drugs.
West Yorkshire Police found the drugs after they stopped a vehicle on December 17.
And now people are being told to check wrappers before eating chocolates Quality Streets, Celebrations and Aero Minis which have instead been named “Quality Heat”, “Calibrations” and “Ammo Minis”.
A police spokesperson said: “Please be vigilant if you see these, they can contain dangerous amounts of THC and people sometimes do not realise the danger of consuming these items.”
Similarly, in March this year police in West Yorkshire said that £300,000 worth of edible cannabis was found in chocolate boxes after being disguised by drug dealers, reported BirminghamLive.
The gang members had disguised the drugs as sweets to target children.
On that occasion chocolates with similar names to Dairy Milk and Milky Bar were seized during a police raid in Wakefield and found to be laced with drugs.
Again the drugs were made to look like sweets and packaged in colourful packets, and they were expected to be distributed from West Yorkshire to areas across the country.
Officers also seized around £2,000 worth of cannabis, crack cocaine valued at £10,000 and over £6,750 worth of heroin.
Detective Supt Fiona Gaffney, head of Serious and Organised Crime at West Yorkshire Police, said: “County Lines and the organised crime linked to it has a significant impact on the people of West Yorkshire and the communities we serve. It’s linked to violence and the exploitation of many vulnerable people.
“Our aim is to disrupt these activities and to reassure people in our county that we won’t tolerate county lines criminality anywhere in West Yorkshire.”
Meanwhile, in Nuneaton, police uncovered a cannabis factory at a property with hundreds of plants in rows and tied up like Christmas trees, reported CoventryLive.
“This resulted in hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of cannabis being taken off the streets and removing a significant safety concern for neighbouring properties,” the Nuneaton Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) said.
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