Secret Service investigating after cocaine found in White House

White House.
(Image credit: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The Secret Service is investigating how a suspicious white powder later confirmed to be cocaine ended up in the White House on Sunday, "near where visitors taking tours of the West Wing are instructed to leave their cellphones," The Washington Post reported.

Secret Service agents were doing routine rounds when they discovered the powder in an "area accessible to tour groups, not in any particular West Wing office," according to NPR. The White House was then briefly evacuated.

President Biden was at Camp David at the time and did not return to D.C. until Tuesday morning.

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Both a preliminary and final test of the powder indicated it was cocaine, per the Post. "The item was sent for further evaluation and an investigation into the cause and manner of how it entered the White House is pending," said Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

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Brigid Kennedy

Brigid is a staff writer at The Week and a graduate of Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Her passions include improv comedy, David Fincher films, and breakfast food. She lives in New York.