Dealers Are Jumping on the World Cup Bandwagon

Drug dealers in the UK are getting involved in the World Cup by sending out special deals and marketing gimmicks for drugs such as cocaine, weed and ketamine. 

As they did when Queen Elizabeth II died in September, purveyors of psychoactive substances are marking the World Cup in Qatar with a themed promotional push. 

One dealer, “Dave the Rave”, who delivers to “any location in London!”, has made a “World Cup Party Pack Invite” graphic with the official World Cup logo, national flags and lists of different drug deals instead of teams under groups A to F.

One sent out a message to customers advertising cocaine referencing players in the England team. “It’s World Cup season, three lions on the shirt, why not 3 for £90. You got the Sterling I got the Kane.” 

A text message from a Manchester weed dealer sent before England’s opening game on Monday said: “What better way to numb the pain of the inevitable harry maguire mistake than some of the best haze and dog in mcr it's coming home make sure you are with a bag of cali in your pocket like gareth bale in trippiers.” 

Another dealer has told customers every time they buy a bag of drugs they can enter a competition to guess the minute of England’s next goal, with the price being “a goody bag full of party stuff”.   

Some texts are combining multiple events, with one offering cocaine, ketamine, shrooms, 2CB and MDMA, with an offer of “World Cup Black Friday deals”.  

“We see dealers taking advantage of big events in real time by incorporating it into their text messages advertising their stock and prices,” the curator of Shotta Texts, an online collection of funny drug dealer texts, told VICE World News. “From New Years to Valentine’s, summer heatwaves and now the World Cup. Whether it works is a mystery, but they always find their way to Shotta Texts for us to laugh at.”