Police were left disappointed when £860,000 worth of ecstasy and MDMA they seized in a raid actually turned out to be ground up Haribo sweets.
The strawberry Haribo or “crushed Tagada strawberry” to be exact is one of France’s most popular confectionary brands and the error was made after the Paris Police announced the haul on Twitter.
The original post announced that the police had, “suppressed in Saint-Ouen a packaging workshop for narcotic products (MDMA, ecstasy) which fed clandestine parties” and that they had taken a million euros worth of drugs.
A day later though, the error was flagged by a toxicology report.
A prosecutor office said according to Le Parisien, “the powder seized in the apartment was a neutral powder, not relating to narcotics or poisonous substance.”
Global news agency AFP have since reported that the ecstasy was in fact Haribo powder.
It has not yet been revealed why the error was made or why the haul was documented on social media before the toxicology report had been finalised.
In related news, police in Spain recently seized a homemade submarine that had the capacity to transport two tonnes of illegal drugs.
According to Spanish police, 52 people were detained, hauls of cocaine and hashish were taken and a drugs laboratory was destroyed.