Police play down report of Dublin drug adulteration

Police in Britain are playing down a theory that adulterated heroin which has been linked with the deaths of heroin-users in the UK and Ireland could have been contaminated in Dublin before being sent to Britain.

The West Midlands Police Force said yesterday there was a "strong suggestion" that the deaths of three heroin-users in the past week were linked to recent deaths in the Republic, Scotland and the north-east of England. However, police refused to speculate on media reports that the adulterated heroin arrived in Britain from Ireland.

Three men were arrested by the West Midlands Police after the body of 45-year-old Derek John Anderson was found in Wolverhampton at the weekend.

Police said there were firm indications that Mr Anderson had died from the same mystery illness which is thought to be responsible for the deaths in the Republic. However, a police spokeswoman described reports that the heroin originated in Dublin as "just one theory".

The spokeswoman said the results of toxicology tests and of Mr Anderson's post-mortem were not yet known, so a definite link to the adulterated heroin could not be established.

Police were continuing to question the three men, two on suspicion of murder and one on suspicion of supplying heroin. A fourth person is being sought in connection with Mr Anderson's death.

The spokeswoman said the number of deaths from the adulterated heroin - assuming Mr Anderson's death was attributable to it - now stood at 36. This includes eight in Dublin and 16 in Glasgow.

Scientists in Britain, Ireland and the United States have been exchanging information in an effort to discover the cause of the illness.

Yesterday, scientists in Scotland said they were close to isolating a virulent bacterium that may have caused the deaths, which were described as "painful".

"We believe bacteria from the clostridia family has been cut into the heroin. The bugs are found in dirt or dust and they resist heat or acid.

"If found in heroin they can last a very long time," said Dr Laurence Gruer of the Greater Glasgow Health Board, who is co-ordinating efforts to end the crisis.

Police in both jurisdictions said yesterday that the contamination of the heroin is almost certain to have happened after it arrived either in Britain or in the Republic, as no pan-European outbreak of similar illnesses had occurred.