White House.Photo: © Caroline Purser/Getty Images
Less than two weeks after the Secret Service launched an investigation intococaine that was found at the White House, the agencyis closing the probe, it announced Thursday.
The substance was found during a July 2 evening patrol of the West Wing, “inside a receptacle used to temporarily store electronic and personal devices prior to entering,” the Secret Service said.
The Secret Service told PEOPLE in a statement at the time that the White House had undergone a “precautionary closure” while the fire department investigated the substance. The department evaluated the substance and determined that it was “non-hazardous.”
“The item was sent for further evaluation and an investigation into the cause and manner of how it entered the White House is pending,” a U.S. Secret Service spokesperson previously said.
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The agency said it launched a “methodical review of security systems and protocols,” including “a backwards examination that spanned several days prior to the discovery of the substance.” That review led the organization to develop an index of “several hundred individuals who may have accessed the area where the substance was found” and a “a pool of known persons for comparison of forensic evidence gleaned from the FBI’s analysis of the substance’s packaging.”
But FBI lab tests for DNA and fingerprints on the bag proved inconclusive, making it impossible to compare forensic evidence against the index of individuals who were in the area around the time it was left.
Surveillance footage also did not prove useful, andthe area in which it was found is one accessible to tour groups, making it difficult to narrow down who may have placed it there.
“Without physical evidence, the investigation will not be able to single out a person of interest from the hundreds of individuals who passed through the vestibule where the cocaine was discovered,” the Secret Service said Thursday. “At this time, the Secret Service’s investigation is closed due to a lack of physical evidence.”
The agency added that it “takes its mission to protect U.S. leaders, facilities, and events seriously and we are constantly adapting to meet the needs of the current and future security environment.”
source: people.com
