Woman surprised to find cocaine in granola bar

The San Antonio Police Department has confirmed narcotics detectives are investigating how a small bag of cocaine ended up inside the wrapper of a granola bar eaten by a local woman. "It's a somewhat disturbing case," Sgt. Javier Salazar said. "You think of a child getting a hold of a package that's got interesting symbols on it, dollar signs in this case, and ingesting something like cocaine that could have a possibly dangerous effect, maybe even deadly on a child," added Salazar.



Cynthia Rodriguez reported the incident to SAPD on March 18, after the bag of cocaine fell from the wrapper of a Nature Valley granola bar. Rodriguez said she originally thought she won a prize. She called Nature Valley and a company representative told her to report the incident to her local police department. Rodriguez said an officer and a detective first tested the substance to see if it was heroin. The detective then tested it for cocaine. "He tried for cocaine and they both looked at each other and he goes 'oh my goodness, its high quality cocaine,'" said Rodriguez.



SAPD took the drugs, the wrapper and the box the granola bars came in as evidence. Salazar said detectives are trying to determine at what point the cocaine got inside the wrapper. "We're not sure if this was something added on purpose or if it was something that may have fallen out of someone's pocket on the assembly line," said Salazar. General Mills, the company that owns the Nature Valley brand, released a written statement on Wednesday: "We referred this to the police department in March, and are confident this did not happen in our facility."


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When pressed for answers about why company officials feel this way, spokesperson Mike Siemienas said granola bars move quickly along its factory assembly lines and that it would be "difficult" for someone to place drugs inside a wrapper. Rodriguez said she's thankful one of her 11 grandchildren, three of whom live at her home, did not find the bag. "What if they thought it was sugar?" asked Rodriguez. Rodriguez said she was given several boxes of Nature Valley bars along with other snack products from a person who hands them out at as samples at San Antonio area stores. She said the larger box, the granola bar box and the wrapper itself did not appear to have been opened at any point before she got the products.