Police have arrested two more people believed to be members of a Moroccan gang dealing cocaine laced with belladonna which has sent 18 people to hospital.
Thee other Moroccans were nabbed over the weekend and found in possession of cocaine which has been sent to a police lab to determine whether it, too had been cut with atropine, a poisonous alkaloid obtained from deadly nightshade, also known as belladonna.
Atropine creates eye and hearing hallucinations and can lead to irregular heartbeat. It dilates the pupils and an overdose can lead to convulsions, unconsciousness and even death.
In a similar case in 2004 in the nearby city of Milan, two people died after taking cocaine cut with atropine.
Police said the alarm over the tainted drugs appears to be over after no one else was hospitalised aside from the six on Thursday and 12 on Friday.
