Colombia’s "pink cocaine" is reportedly spreading through Europe

Tusi, otherwise known as "pink cocaine", is reportedly spreading through Europe — with experts confirming it has been found at a number of music festivals and nightlife centres.

The brightly coloured drug originates from Colombia, and consists of a combination of cocaine, ketamine, MDMA and pink food colouring.

According to Vice, the drug is associated with Colombia’s club scene in major cities and was first discovered in the country in 2010.

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Tests on the drug show that it contains an unpredictable mix of drugs as it has previously been found to contain benzos, meth and cathinones.

It is claimed that the drug usually has a distinctive strawberry scent and was given the name tusi (pronounced 2C) by locals because of its psychedelic effect from containing 2CB.

In a report published by the UN this week, ‘pink cocaine’ has been found at a music festival in the UK, and in Austria and Switzerland.

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“This drug is connected to the neo-drug trafficker culture in Colombia,” Julian Quintero, a sociologist and researcher at Social Technical Action, a Colombian drug policy NGO, told Vice.

“The best party places and the million-peso prostitutes at the most ostentatious parties are not in the hands of the traditional adult “patrons" of the drug trade, but of daring youngsters who have learned to ‘cook’ tusi in their own kitchens.” Quintero said, with the help of tusi, neo-drug trafficker culture has “taken the monopoly of money and beautiful women away from the cocaine traffickers”.

He concludes: “With tusi, anyone can be a young man playing a drug trafficker. The teenage gangster culture has been democratised.”

Last week, Spanish authorities caught seven gang members who had allegedly been involved in distributing "pink cocaine" in Madrid and Malaga.

Police report that they smuggled the drugs in through suitcases from Latin America and after raided their homes, eight kilos of the drug was found.

As well as this, Vice have reported that earlier this year 13 kilos of the drug was found in Ibiza along with regular cocaine, ketamine, a submachine gun and €440,000 (around £380,000) in cash was found.

12 people were arrested after this with most of them being British and two Colombian.

Becky Buckle is Mixmag's Video and Editorial Assistant, follow her on Twitter