"Caution, danger to life: Champagne bottles from the Moët & Chandon Ice Impérial brand (3 liters) are being recalled again because some of them are filled with the drug MDMA," writes the Schleswig-Holstein consumer center in a Facebook post.

This is the second recall of the Ice Impérial champagne variety this year: in February, a man died in the Bavarian town of Weiden after drinking the champagne.

According to a post by the consumer advice center on Facebook, the bottles cannot be distinguished from the outside.

When pouring, however, there is a clear difference: the bottles filled with MDMA should have a reddish-brown color.

"This message is not a joke," makes clear the consumer center.

The recall relates to lot numbers LAJ7QAB6780004 and LAK5SAA6490005.

Affected bottles can be returned to retailers.

Poisoning cases in Germany and the Netherlands

The police are already investigating this criminal case.

In February there had already been a recall of the same champagne brand.

Back then, too, it was a three-liter bottle of the Ice Impérial variety.

A restaurant visitor in Weiden in the Upper Palatinate had previously died after drinking from it.

Seven other people had shown severe symptoms of poisoning and had to be treated in hospital.

Initially, the investigating officers assumed that the bottle that those affected had been drinking was in its original packaging before it was consumed - later it turned out that the bottle "was no longer the original cork".

It was opened, the contents changed and then closed again.

A “man from the region” sold the bottle privately to the Weiden restaurant.

Four cases were also reported in the Netherlands.

It is still unclear how the drug got into champagne.

The trail leads to Australia

The two incidents led investigations to Australia.

A spokesman said liquid MDMA was found there in smuggled champagne bottles during a border check in 2018.

It was the same brand as in Weiden and in the Netherlands, but not the same variety.

At that time, the bottles were sent by air from Europe to Australia.

The Federal Criminal Police Office had "no knowledge that champagne bottles were being used to smuggle liquid MDMA in Europe," said the BKA spokesman.

However, organized gangs tried again and again to smuggle drugs, sometimes in “very unconventional methods” – including in beverage bottles.