Dutch police discover MDMA hidden in garden gnome during drug search

In a bizarre turn of events, officers in the southern Netherlands uncovered a garden gnome weighing nearly 2kg, which was surprisingly made from the illegal drug MDMA. 

Police in the southern Netherlands discovered a garden gnome weighing almost 2kg (4lb) made from the drug MDMA, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media.

"Drugs come in many forms, but occasionally we encounter something unusual," Dongemond Police shared in a translated post on social media. The gnome was found amid suspected narcotics during a large-scale drug raid. "It’s certainly an odd place to store your garden gnome," the police remarked.

"That’s why we chose to test it for narcotics." "The gnome itself appeared visibly startled," police remarked, referring to the gnome with its hands covering its mouth. 

The exact location where the gnome was recovered remains unclear, but the Dongemond Police cover the municipalities of Oosterhout, Geertruidenberg, Drimmelen, and Altena. MDMA, an illegal substance in the Netherlands, is a synthetic party drug commonly known as ecstasy. By 2019, the Netherlands had become one of the leading global producers of MDMA. This isn't the first instance of drugs being concealed in unusual forms. 

Last year, a Scottish man was sentenced to over four years in prison for attempting to smuggle more than £84,000 worth of MDMA hidden in cat food. Similarly, a man from Leeds was charged for attempting to smuggle 90kg (198lb) of the drug into the UK concealed inside frozen chicken pallets.

By Naila Huseynova