COCAINE FOUND IN SCHOOL BOXES

Discovery Second In Week Involving Miss. School

Cocaine was found packed into boxes carrying food at a South Mississippi
school cafeteria for the second time in a week.

Fifteen pounds of cocaine were found at East Central Upper Elementary on
Thursday, a week after the same discovery was made at an elementary school
in Ellisville.

Just like in Ellisville, the drugs in the Hurley school were found in a box
of frozen ground beef.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has recalled all of the packages from H
and H Meat Packing in Mercedes, Texas.

No arrests have been made in either case, which is also being investigated
by the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics.

Gary May, director of child nutrition in the state Department of Education,
said no one connected with a school or the Hattiesburg-based school food
distribution center, Merchants Co., is suspected of being involved.

"There was no knowledge by Merchants or anyone at a school. There was no
way for them to know which case they'd get," he said.

He said investigators believe the cocaine was supposed to have been removed
from the truck coming from Texas before it got to Merchants' cold storage
facility in Jackson.

All schools that might have received shipments of frozen ground beef
through Merchants Co. have been told to put aside the shipment for pickup
and not to open it.

"All of the product is on hold and USDA has several inspectors coming in to
search it," May said.

The drugs found in the shipment at Jackson County's East Central Upper
Elementary were discovered when the box was set aside and it came open, May
said.

"Children were never in any harm," he said.