Hawkers from UK cash in on ‘hippy crack’ at BBC rave
BRITISH drug dealers in Ibiza used social media to sell the deadly party high ‘hippy crack’ to UK revellers at a BBC rave.
Freely touting for business on Facebook and Twitter, they posted their mobile numbers for orders.
The banned party drug – nitrous oxide, or laughing gas – was delivered to party-goers’ hotels, often within an hour.
Small silver canisters of the gas, which contributed to eight deaths in Britain last year, were sold along with ‘crackers’ used to transfer it into balloons, from which it is inhaled.
The Daily Mail witnessed revellers get through hundreds of balloons while guzzling alcohol on the fringes of the annual Radio 1 in Ibiza event.
One dealer who was approached on Twitter responded with a recorded message on WhatsApp within seconds. A girl with a Yorkshire accent promised to supply the drug to a hotel within 90 minutes. She said a box of gas canisters was 25 euros (£22) and a ‘cracker’ was 15 euros (£13).
The dealer, using a Twitter account called Ibiza Laughing Gas, claimed they were ‘so busy with Radio 1’. Yesterday a post read: ‘Radio One weekend madness means there is a shortage of crackers on the island!’
Another dealer operating via Twitter and Facebook as Ibiza Balloons and The Nosfather, also responded within seconds, offering a box of 24 canisters for about 30 euros (£27).
He added that he was ‘mad busy today’ but could deliver the party drug within an hour.
A Facebook spokesman said: ‘We thank the Daily Mail for bringing these accounts to our attention, which we are investigating.’
Dr Liam Brennan, president of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, said the drug posed ‘significant immediate and longer term risks’.
A Radio 1 spokesman said: ‘Robust search procedures were in place at this event, with no arrests or incidents reported.’
‘Delivered to hotel in under an hour’