German prosecutors said they had arrested a suspect in the case of a 52-year-old man who died after unwittingly drinking champagne laced with ecstasy at a restaurant last year.
Other members of the man's party fell ill with symptoms of poisoning immediately after drinking from the same contaminated three-litre bottle in the Bavarian town of Weiden in February 2022.
Five men and three women between the ages of 33 and 52 were rushed to hospital, where the 52-year-old died later that night.
Toxicology tests had revealed that the champagne contained a "high concentration" of the illegal drug ecstasy.
After drinking the tainted champagne, some of the patrons were writhing in pain on the restaurant floor and screaming in agony, local media reported.
The prosecutor's office in Weiden said the 35-year-old Polish suspect had fled to the Netherlands where he was detained in cooperation with Dutch and Polish authorities.
He is facing charges including organised narcotics trafficking as well as negligent homicide and bodily harm.
The suspect, allegedly working with a criminal gang, "is believed to have been responsible for storing narcotics kept in bottles in the Netherlands and thus shares the blame for the bottles winding up with third parties," the prosecutor's office said.
Investigators tracing the source of the ecstasy followed a trail back to the Netherlands, finding several bottles with similar contamination that were repeatedly sold on to other parties who were all unaware of their contents. One of these bottles ended up in Weiden.
German prosecutors said they were continuing to investigate to identify other possible accomplices.
After the death in Weiden, German and Dutch authorities issued a warning to consumers that drinking from or even touching such bottles could be "life threatening".
