Amsterdam police are warning tourists to beware of heroin being sold as cocaine following the deaths of two British men.
Shaun Brotherston, 20, and Bradley Price, 21, were found dead in an Amsterdam hotel room earlier this week after snorting powder thought to be ‘white heroin’, or heroin in its pure form.
Police believe the same drug dealers were involved in the death of another British man last month.
“We checked the powder and it looked like cocaine, but after testing it we found it was white heroin. The contents were the same as material we seized in other cases where people got ill,” said police spokesman Rob van der Veen.
Since mid-September, 17 tourists have required medical attention after snorting heroin.
“These are the first cases the police have seen where white heroin has been taken as cocaine in the Netherlands,” van der Veen told BBC Newsbeat.
White heroin is “much more expensive” than cocaine, but the dealer “sold it for the same price [as cocaine] several times”, he added. “We think he doesn’t know what he is selling.”
Signs warning tourists of the danger have been erected outside Central Station and the Rembrandtplein and Leiseplein squares, as Mixmag reports.
