A specially packaged bundle of suspected heroin found in a bathroom at Columbia Point Marina turned out to be a block of chewing tobacco.
The package was found Tuesday when a maintenance worker bumped into the ventilation screen inside the bathroom, Richland police Capt. Mike Cobb said.
Officers initially thought the package had six, 1-ounce bindles of heroin and speculated it was left there for someone on a state Department of Corrections work crew to pick up, he said.
About 90 seconds after it was found, a van of inmates from Coyote Ridge Corrections Center pulled into the marina for a break, Cobb said. The inmates had been picking up litter along Highway 240.
Further testing showed the package contained a block of chewing tobacco that has the same consistency and appearance of black tar heroin, Cobb said.
Investigators still have no proof the package was left for a Coyote Ridge work crew inmate, but Cobb suspects it was.
"Who else would treat that as contraband other than someone in the penal system?" Cobb said. "It's the only reasonable explanation I can think of."
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