White heroin resurfaces in Amsterdam seven years after fatal epidemic

Police discovered between 10 and 15 kilograms of white heroin in a hidden compartment of a car in Amsterdam on Tuesday. The 46-year-old driver of the vehicle from The Hague was taken into custody after the discovery was made.

Investigators initially believed the packages contained cocaine. Upon further analysis, the packages proved to consist of white heroin.

On multiple occasions in the past, white heroin has been sold by drug dealers to mostly unsuspecting tourists as cocaine.

In 2014, three British tourists and 17 further people were hospitalized after using white heroin they thought was cocaine. It led to a massive city-wide publicity campaign to notify tourists and locals alike that the dangerous drug was on the streets. The outreach included city-branded drug test kits sold in shops so consumers could verify the authenticity of their drugs.

One year later, three Danish tourists were taken to hospital after snorting the drug. One person was convicted in that case, but only on drug trafficking charges.