Police red-faced after hailing major cocaine coup
Police in Italy have released eight men after the haul of "cocaine" they were seized with turned out to be athletes foot powder.
Officers had announced to news organisations that they had busted a major international drugs ring after the men were arrested with a kilo of what they said was cocaine.
They were held in custody overnight while officers celebrated their "spectacular coup" at Modena in northern Italy.
But there were embarrassed faces all round when the lab report came back and confirmed the "cocaine" was in fact athletes foot powder.
The men were immediately released.
One said:''We tried to tell the police when they arrested us but they wouldn't listen. They just smiled at each other as they put the handcuffs on us and said 'Yeah, yeah lads good one'."
Story filed: 13:05 Sunday 16th March 2003
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