NC Sheriff Blames Cheese For False Drug Test

ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- An enzyme found in cheese triggered false drug test results that led North Carolina deputies to think a man with 91 pounds of tortilla dough was actually carrying that much cocaine, the sheriff said.

Antonio Hernandez spent four days in an Asheville jail this month before tests by a state lab showed he was carrying food, not drugs.

A Buncombe County deputy stopped Hernandez on May 1 and found what turned out to be a mix of cheese, shrimp and tortilla and tamale dough in his truck. A portable kit used by deputies changed colors, indicating the mixture was illegal drugs.

Sheriff Van Duncan told The Asheville Citizen-Times he didn't know until this case that some foods, like cheese, can give false positives on field drug tests. He plans to have deputies talk to the company that makes the tests.

Comments

[cmr11]

08:39 AM on 05/18/2011

man oh man my lawyers would have a field day with this........

[Susan Pennycuff]

11:12 PM on 05/16/2011

If ( and that is a huge IF) you can get past the fact that the police could not tell it was not cocaine when they made the arrest, it is hard to believe that in four days nobody noticed the smell of the rotting shrimp in the mixture sitting in the evidence room or that nobody at the station recognized the tortilla dough was not cocaine... makes you wonder just how well trained NC police departments really are... perhaps that where where all the unemployed should go looking for work, seems to me they will employ anyone with any credentials... knowledge is of the law or common sense is not needed to do the job... ought to be an unemployed persons playground when looking for a job... heck anyone should be over qualified... I think most ten year olds could have known the difference and most ten year olds have never seen cocaine in their lives!

[Amalek]

09:28 PM on 05/16/2011

Why would the cops have gone and done something that stupid.  They got themselves an illegal, or at least an anchor baby.   All you got to do is plant some cocaine on him.  You telling me they don't have any cocaine in their evidence locker.  Fools, you can't snort it all yourself, you gotta save some to frame the illegals.

[LogicalMathMan]

08:29 PM on 05/16/2011

Good thing it didn't happen in AZ...Antonio Hernandez would've been deported to Mexico, notwithstanding his US citizenship.

[Captain Beyond]

06:15 PM on 05/16/2011

"and found what turned out to be a mix of cheese, shrimp and tortilla and tamale dough in his truck."

i'm confused. a mix of bags of each of the items or the items all in one 91 lb. bag?

if he had bags of each ingredient, wouldn't that kind of validate his word? i mean, shrimp, tortilla dough, tamale dough and cocaine (WTF!?). i'd put money on his word it was cheese. maybe even taste test it...or even smell it. i don't know, maybe they have cheese-flavored cocaine nowadays...or at the very least cheese-scented.

did these cops ever give him the benefit of their tiny, wrongheaded doubt? what would even indicate he's a drug dealer? or are we just presumed guilty right away?

and if those ingredients were all mixed together (which sounds nasty) how would you extract the coke from your cheese-shrimp tam-tilla?

[Fetus]

05:57 PM on 05/16/2011

My sources on the ground in Asheville said the man cut the cheese with flour, however.

[Nomadius]

05:55 PM on 05/16/2011

He should sue the city for such unfair assault to his dignity and freedom. War on drug is proving to be costly in $$ and embarrassement.

[Fencik45]

05:06 PM on 05/16/2011

Thank goodness he didn't have oregano as well...he may have received a life sentence!

[LogicalMathMan]

08:28 PM on 05/16/2011

LOL...I only sold oregano as da ganja when I was broke in college.

[onwisconsin]

10:30 PM on 05/16/2011

When I was a little girl I found some "oregano" in my sister's stuff and took it to my parents and asked them why my sister was making italian food in her room.

Yeah, I narc-ed on my sister. But she threw me down the steps in the basement and cut my head open and she was 6 1/2 years older.

[Raven911]

11:24 AM on 05/16/2011

ROFLMAO....CHEESE AND POPPY SEEDS!!!! LOL Poor guy with his contraband food products....