Cocaine found in the White House: the Secret Service could not find who brought it there

According to a statement from the United States Secret Service (USSS), the agency has completed an investigation into the appearance of a small bag of cocaine found in the White House, and was unable to identify the suspect. Writes about it CNN.

Photo: IStock

Secret Service officials combed "security systems" and recorded "several hundred people" who had entered the West Wing in the days before the discovery, according to the USSS statement, and were unable to identify the suspect. The Secret Service said the FBI's packaging lab results found "not enough DNA" so they couldn't get fingerprints.

"As a result, the Secret Service is unable to compare evidence to a known pool of individuals," the USSS said in a statement.

Investigators were unable to determine the exact moment or day the package was left in the West Wing storage closet near the entrance to the lower level where it was found.

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“No surveillance video was found that would provide investigative leads or any other means for investigators to determine who may have placed the recovered substance in the area,” the department said in a statement. “Without physical evidence, the investigation will not be able to identify a person of interest from the hundreds of people who passed through the place where cocaine was discovered. The Secret Service investigation is currently closed due to lack of physical evidence."

A source familiar with the investigation said the main theory remains that the package was left behind by one of the hundreds of visitors who entered the West Wing that weekend for tours and were asked to leave their phones in these lockers.

According to a source familiar with the investigation, the cell where the bag of cocaine was found is a blind spot for surveillance cameras. Although the location where the bag was found is under surveillance, the cameras are not aimed directly at it, making it difficult to determine who left the cocaine there, he said.

"The Secret Service has briefed us on the results of their investigation, and we are looking into that information," First Deputy White House Press Secretary Olivia Dalton said in a statement.

Cocaine found in a locker near the entrance on the first floor of the West Wing, through which tours of the White House pass heading to the building.

Visitors entering the West Wing for tours are asked to leave their phones in these lockers - they are also used by staff who cannot bring their phones into the confidential information room where classified materials are processed. The cells are located next to the Situation Room, which has not been used for several months due to ongoing renovations.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre previously expressed confidence that the USSS would "get to the bottom" of the incident.

The discovery of the powdered substance by Secret Service personnel conducting a routine tour of the building prompted a brief evacuation as part of what the USSS called a "preventive closure."

The Secret Service briefed the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on the case. Leaving this briefing, Republican Party member Tim Burchett said the case was "the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen in my life."

He said the bag contained less than a gram of cocaine.

“You were all in the White House. You give your social security number, I'm sure they have facial ID and everything. And then say they don't know the culprit? Someone must lose their job because of this,” he said.

Burchett elaborated: “Someone walks into the White House, the most secure building in the United States of America, and they can put something in a locker. What if it was a biological entity? What if it was something that had a charge, and it would ripen within a few days? Who knows what could have happened."

According to Republican Party spokeswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, the Secret Service informed members at a briefing that it had narrowed the list of suspects to 500 people. Green asked the USSS if they would drug test these people, and the answer was no.

The list includes both employees and others, GOP spokeswoman Lauren Bobert said, but the Secret Service did not provide details.

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According to Bobert, cocaine was found in locker number 50, but there was no key to this locker. Members of the Republican Party raised the issue of the locker system and how to make it more secure.

Rep. Nancy Mays said the USSS should have received visitor logs and other information from the administration of US President Joe Biden under the Presidential Records Act because the locker in which the cocaine was found is under the jurisdiction of the Biden administration.

A Secret Service spokesman said "a small amount of marijuana" was found twice in the White House last year. No arrests were made in these cases either.

“No one was arrested in connection with these incidents because the weight of the marijuana seized did not meet the legal threshold for federal or District of Columbia misdemeanor charges because the District of Columbia has decriminalized possession,” Secret Service spokesman Steven Kopec said. “The marijuana was collected by officers and destroyed.”

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