Fourth Death Linked To Bad Batch Of Drugs

A man has died in Shropshire after taking drugs that may be linked to three previous deaths in Suffolk.

West Mercia Police said the 27-year-old man was found dead at a house in Ketley, Telford, around 1.45pm on New Year’s Day.

Superintendent James Tozer said he wasn’t officially linking the death to those in Suffolk, where three people have died after taking the drugs, but admitted there “appear to be similarities”.

He added:People are taking risks purchasing, owning, selling and taking them.

“At this stage we have one case – we don’t want any more.”

A spokesman for the force said: “Police believe the death could have been a result of taking an illegal drug which is described as a red triangle shape with a Superman sign on it. It has also been described as a round shape.”

Following the three deaths in Suffolk linked to the dangerous batch of ecstasy, police appealed for people to hand the drugs in.

Officers promised those surrendering the drugs would not face prosecution and that they simply wanted to remove the “dangerous batch” of pills from circulation.

Superintendent Louisa Pepper, from Suffolk Police, said that anyone who has the tablets, believed to be red, triangular and embossed with an “S” Superman emblem, should hand them in at a police station, accident and emergency department or fire station.

She told Sky News: “Please don’t be worried about any sort of prosecution because we genuinely just want (the drugs) off the streets.”

She denied, however, that this was the beginning of a drug amnesty, adding: “These are potentially so dangerous we need to remove them from the streets to prevent further deaths.”

Meanwhile, one of the men who died from taking an ecstasy pill thought to have been part of the batch in Suffolk has been named as 20-year-old labourer John Hocking.

Neighbours of a second man, aged 24, who died in Provan Court, Ipswich, the same day, said he was originally from Lithuania.

Another man from the same address, although thought to be from Lithuania, was in hospital in a serious condition, but Supt Pepper said he was “improving”.

The death of the third man, Justas Ropas, in Ipswich, on 24 December, could also be linked to the drug, according to officers.

Mr Ropas was a 22-year-old machine operator.

Suffolk Police have drawn a link between these latest drugs and dangerous pills with a similar appearance found in the Netherlands last month.

The tablets in the Netherlands had a large concentration of PMMA, which acts more slowly than ecstasy’s MDMA.

This means people take more pills because they think they are not working. 

Source Article from https://uk.news.yahoo.com/police-appeal-over-ipswich-dangerous-drugs-141009957.html

Fourth Death Linked To Bad Batch Of Drugs