Two Buyers Arrested for 250 Pill DNM Purchase

On February 11, 2017, customs officials at the Vienna Schwechat airport intercepted a package of 250 ecstasy pills. The ecstasy originated from the Netherlands—a red flag for law enforcement. Several months later, following an investigation by Austrian law enforcement, the district police in Volkermarkt arrested the buyer of the package.

The Netherlands is well-known as one of the greatest exporters of substituted amphetamines and (substituted) derivative phenethylamines. This substance category contains many novel psychoactive substances covered in the Global Drug Survey 2017.

If a new “research chemical” hits the market (specifically a subjectively “good” RC), the likelihood of that drug coming from the Netherlands is incredibly high. And new drugs surface at rates similar to those of synthetic cannabinoids in the United States.

Neighboring countries have remarked that the Netherlands needs to take action against the laboratories that pump out ecstasy—along with the drug “flavor of the month.” Thus, while waiting for judicial action in the Netherlands, packages bearing labels from within the Netherlands are scrutinized at postal stations worldwide.

Police never mentioned the details surrounding the package seizure; they could have simply picked the package up by chance. But the defendant, a 20-year-old from a town in Austria carried Volkermarkt, likely ordered a package from a vendor within in the Netherlands, a profiled country. No more than that.

Further investigative work occurred before the criminal police department arrested the young man. When they finally raided his home, they found an array of additionally incriminating evidence. Much of it was similar to the evidence found in many recent German and Austrian arrests.

For instance, the police found 74 grams of marijuana, and an indoor growing operation with 10 live plants. Indoor cannabis grow operations, if they even qualify as “grow operations,” appeared in more recent cases than not—in the region, at least.

However, police also found two grams of heroin and 127 ecstasy pills. And, contrary to the ongoing trend, law enforcement made no mention of any disguised “electro-shock” weapon or taser.

The 20-year-old shared a house with a housemate of the same age. And based on the primary suspect’s testimony, at the very least, officers arrested both 20-year-olds. The original suspect told police that they, referring to the duo, sold some of the ecstasy in small quantities but used the majority themselves.

Head of Criminal Investigations, Rudolf Stiff, warned that the pills were of an incredibly high potency. And, furthermore, “that it is not advisable to take the drug in this form.” Both suspects will see a judge but a court date has not been announced.