US Secret Service investigating cocaine discovered inside White House

A preliminary field test on a white substance found in the White House has reportedly come up positive for cocaine, law enforcement authorities have said.

The United State Secret Service said it was investigating how the substance came into White House.

The presence of the substance, which has been sent out for further testing, came to light late on Monday when a firefighter with the Washington DC fire department’s hazardous materials team radioed: “We have a yellow bar saying cocaine hydrochloride,” the Washington Post reports.

Secret Service spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi, said that the discovery led to an elevated security alert and a brief evacuation of the executive mansion after it was found during a routine round of inspection

Initial reports indicated the substance was discovered in a reference library. The Associated Press, citing two officials who were unauthorised to speak about the investigation, later claimed that the white powder was found “in an area accessible to tour groups, not in any particular West Wing office.”

Guglielmi had told Washington Post that there is “an investigation into the cause and manner” of how the substance entered the White House. At the time, President Joe Biden was at Camp David. The US president and first lady Jill Biden returned from the presidential retreat in Maryland to the White House on Tuesday morning.

An official familiar with the investigation said that the amount of the substance was small.

This is the first time illegal drugs entered the White House. Rapper Snoop Dogg said he had smoked weed in a bathroom in 2013, and Willie Nelson confessed to smoking a joint on the White House roof during the presidency of Jimmy Carter.