Preliminary investigations revealed that the powder was cocaine.
Washington D.C.:
A suspicious white-colored substance found at the White House over the weekend has been identified as cocaine, Al Jazeera reported citing US media.
The powder was found by Secret Service agents in a publicly accessible part of the West Wing around 8:45 p.m. local time on Sunday, prompting a brief evacuation of the complex.
President Joe Biden was not present at the time. Instead, he spent the weekend at Camp David, the presidential retreat. Fire and emergency services arrived to quickly test the material. These preliminary investigations revealed that the powder was cocaine.
Soon after, the White House reopened and the powder was sent for more testing.
Although the Secret Service states that an “item” was discovered and tested, it has not yet specified what the material was.
“The item has been sent for further evaluation and an investigation into its cause and manner of entering the White House is pending,” the agency, which is in charge of presidential security, said in a statement, according to Al Jazeera.
However, the drug was identified by many media outlets, citing government sources. The Washington Post also reported that “a firefighter from the D.C. department’s hazardous materials team radioed the results of the powder being tested.”
“We have a yellow bar that says cocaine hydrochloride,” the radio message said. The area where the cocaine was recovered is regularly visited by itinerant groups.
The West Wing is a portion of the White House connected to the president’s residence, the executive mansion. The Oval Office, Cabinet Room, and Press Room are all located there, along with the offices and workplaces of the President’s staffers.
There are hundreds of people who regularly visit or work in the area.
Biden and his family left for Camp David on Friday and returned to the White House on Tuesday, where the president would address a national teachers’ union and host a barbecue to celebrate US Independence Day, Al Jazeera reported.
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