イースターのウサギチョコ、実は合成麻薬「ＭＤＭＡ」　ベルギー

【ブリュッセルＡＦＰ＝時事】イースター（Ｅａｓｔｅｒ、復活祭）には世界中の子どもたちが、ベルギーのウサギ形チョコレートを楽しみにしている。しかし、時には中身がチョコではないこともある。（写真はウサギ形チョコレートを模した合成麻薬ＭＤＭＡの塊を調べる税関職員。ベルギー・ブリュッセル空港にて。）
　ベルギー税関は先週、イースターバニー・チョコを模した「エクスタシー」の名で知られる合成麻薬「ＭＤＭＡ」の塊を複数押収した。
　税関職員ポール・ムルネールさん（６１）が、ラマン分光法で化学物質を特定する携帯型の機器で白いウサギ形の塊をスキャンすると、画面の色が緑に変わり「注意：ＭＤＭＡ（エクスタシー）」と表示された。
　「ほら、純粋なＭＤＭＡだ」「ここにいるウサギで１、２キロ分になる。１キロでエクスタシー６０００錠を作れる」
　ベルギーのアントワープ港は、中南米産コカインの欧州への入り口であると同時に、一部は末端価格が欧州より高いオーストラリアなどへも再輸出されている。
　ムルネールさんは税関で４３年間働くベテランで、あと数か月で定年退職の予定だ。働き始めた頃はマリフアナを１０グラム見つけただけで大騒ぎをしていたとＡＦＰに話した。
　ブリュッセル空港の貨物エリアにあるムルネールさんの職場は現在、麻薬が入っていると疑われる小包や、違法な錠剤や粉が入った袋や瓶が山積みになっている。
　財務省の関税・物品税総局（ＳＰＦ）の報道官によると、２０２２年にブリュッセル空港で押収された麻薬は６トン近くに上る。インターネットで数クリックするだけで購入でき、世界中に届けられるという。
　中身がＭＤＭＡだったイースターバニーは香港宛てで、発送元はベルギーだった。ブリュッセルの貨物ターミナルで押収された。
　子ども向け人気アニメ「ペッパピッグ」の弁当箱とされていたニュージーランド宛ての荷物は、不自然に重かった。段ボールの中のプラスチック製の仕切りに、乱用が問題となっている麻酔薬「ケタミン」が詰め込まれていたのだった。
　結晶の成長を観察する子ども用の科学実験セットには、シュリンク包装された結晶状の覚せい剤「メタンフェタミン」が入っていた。
　二重になった段ボールの間にプラ袋に入ったコカインもあった。
　郵便で輸出される麻薬のほとんどはベルギーなどの違法工場で製造された合成麻薬で、ベルギー当局によると、特にオランダで作られたものが多い。
　ＳＰＦの報道官は、ベルギーの郵便物は「配送先の国でオランダからのものより関税当局者の目を引きにくい」と説明した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/04/12-16:46）

Belgian bunnies will be an Easter treat for kids around the world this weekend, but not all are moulded from the country's renowned chocolate.
A batch of rabbits seized this week by veteran customs officer Pol Meuleneire was crafted from a solid lump of MDMA, the raw material for pills of the rave drug ecstasy.
Known as the gateway into Europe for Latin American cocaine, Belgium has now also become a turntable for mail-order synthetic drugs, made in Europe and sent worldwide.
Meuleneire, who retires in a few months after 43 years in Belgium's customs service, told AFP that when he began his career he was excited to find 10 grammes of cannabis in a letter.
Now, his workspace in an office block in the freight zone at Brussels airport is overflowing with suspect packages -- and bags and jars of illegal pills and powders.
So in 2022 we got to nearly six tonnes of drugs, seized here at the airport, explained Florence Angelici, spokeswoman for the SPF federal finance service.
It goes all over the world. Today, people can order online on the 'dark web' in a few clicks and can decide what they want and have it delivered to their homes.
The false chocolate bunnies had been parcelled up and posted in Belgium, addressed to a buyer in Hong Kong, only to be intercepted at the Brussels airport freight terminal.
Meuleneire pressed his handheld scanner -- which uses Raman spectroscopy to identify substances by their chemical fingerprint -- against one supposed chocolate rabbit and took a reading.
The screen flashed green and the analysis was clear: Caution: MDMA (ecstasy).
So you see? It's pure MDMA, the 61-year-old said. So here we have, bumpety-bump, one or two kilogrammes of this. With one kilogramme you make six thousand ecstasy pills.
And, as Meuleneire worked his box cutter during a visit by AFP journalists, several more illicit deliveries emerged from packages received in just the past week.
A Peppa Pig branded lunchbox destined for New Zealand itself proved innocent, but the packaging it was carried in felt too heavy to be just cardboard and plastic.
Packed into a corrugated plastic parcel divider: ketamine, an anaesthetic misused as a recreational drug and one of the fastest growing illegal exports through the airport postal depot.
A child's toy chemistry set for studying the growth of crystals was found to contain a shrink-wrapped bag of crystal meth, an illegal and addictive synthetic stimulant.
- Dutch drug labs -
There is even cocaine, slid in plastic packets between double layers of cardboard packaging, making the parcel suspiciously heavy to an experienced customs officer.
Belgium's Antwerp is the main port of entry into Europe for Latin American cocaine, but some is re-exported by post to countries like Australia, where it fetches a higher street price.
Gangs in countries like Venezuela, which export plant-based narcotics like cocaine to Europe, in turn import synthetic drugs like crystal meth from European labs.
But most of the mail-order exports are of synthetic drugs made in rogue labs and covert pharma plants in Belgium and especially, according to Belgian officials, the Netherlands.
Ketamine, MDMA and methamphetamine are disguised in everyday objects or packaged in jars marked as legal vitamin supplements, then mailed from ordinary post offices in Belgium, France and Germany.
Here, we're talking mainly about using the Belgian postal service, which might attract less attention from customs officers in the arrival countries than the Dutch one, Angelici told AFP.
The smugglers use mules to transport the parcels and to post them from all over Belgium, and other European countries, and send them all around the world.
At the airport, a computerised platform selects packages based on known suspect features and customs officers go to work scanning them and in some cases cutting them open.
Souvenirs in Meuleneire's workspace include portraits of Jesus Christ that were held in frames stuffed with drugs, teddy bears full of pills and copper pipes packed with veterinary tranquilisers.