Police in Hilversum are asking for information following the death in 2023 of an elderly couple killed by drinking amphetamine oil hidden in a gin bottle.

A total of 4 bottles containing the drug had been sent to Seville in Spain but were not collected, police said. They were then sent back to a wine seller in the Netherlands whose address was used as a cover-up. He then put the bottles in his shop, unaware they had been tampered with.

In April 2023, the 84-year-old woman became unwell after drinking the oil and died later in hospital. Her husband, whose age was not given, showed the same symptoms and died two weeks earlier. The bottle was given to the couple as a present.

Amphetamine oil is a type of speed. The drug is usually sold as pills or powder but is also traded semi-finished.

There are no indications that more bottles ended up with clients of the store, police said.

It is not the first time bottles filled with drugs end up killing unwitting people. In 2022, a guest at a restaurant in Germany died after drinking from a champagne bottle containing mdma. That ended in the arrest of a Dutch national whose trial is currently underway.

Police are focusing on the two people who tried to pick up the package in Seville but have so far failed to trace them. The case will be featured on crime show Opsporing Verzocht next week in an effort to gain more information.