German police have claimed that the corrosive designer drug known as "crystal meth" was responsible for hundreds of self-destructing euro notes which have been mysteriously disintegrating in the hands of baffled shoppers and bank clerks since early last summer. More than 1,700 crumbling €50 and €20 notes have surfaced in at least 17 German towns and cities since June this year, prompting fears of a potential health risk and speculation about a possible blackmail attempt. The crumbing note mystery, which causes large holes to appear in euro notes as soon as they are touched, prompted a nationwide investigation by police and the German Bundesbank, which has been obliged to take back hundreds of damaged €50 and €20 notes. Yet nobody blamed drug users for the problem. [continues 480 words]
THE Netherlands has sent a naval frigate to the Antilles to hunt down cocaine dealers and ordered emergency prison cells to be set up after it was revealed that drug smugglers were being allowed to walk free because of overcrowded jails and courts. The emergency measures were announced last week after senior customs officials at Schiphol, the Netherlands' main airport, wrote a letter to the Amsterdam daily Het Parool last month revealing that they had been ordered to stop arresting cocaine smugglers arriving from the Dutch Antilles and Surinam. [continues 511 words]
