WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) A North Carolina sheriffs office thought it made a huge drug bust, seizing 13 pounds of fentanyl worth $2 million on the street. The powder was found in a home along with other drugs and paraphernalia. A field test indicated it was the powerful opioid, justifying a host of charges against three suspects.
Most of those charges soon evaporated when a state lab concluded that whatever the powder was, it wasnt fentanyl.
The sheriffs office then sent the powder to a private lab, and the results arrived this week. New Hanover Sheriffs Lt. Jerry Brewer said the powder seized in July includes no illicit ingredients, and is nothing more than a combination of simple and complex carbohydrates. In other words, sugar, worth about $8 at the grocery store.
A not-so-sweet drug seizure
