Two people have been arrested in South Carolina after Anderson County deputies conducted a traffic stop – and ended up finding cocaine hidden behind what they thought was a pregnant woman’s belly.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, deputies pulled over Anthony Miller and Cemeka Mitchem along Interstate 85 during what police said was a “proactive patrol.” Mitchem appeared to be pregnant, but police said that they detected a “red flag” soon into the stop when the pair “gave conflicting information about her ‘due date.'”
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Soon after, police said that Mitchem realized that the deputies were becoming suspicious of the pair’s story, and she “immediately took off running.”
“Very quickly drugs fell from the fake rubber stomach,” police said. When they were cleaning up the scene, they collected more than 1,500 grams of cocaine, they added.
The sheriff’s office posted about the incident on Sunday, although county records show the pair were arrested on April 12. CBS News has reached out to the sheriff’s department for comment.
The office also shared an image of what seems to be a police officer posing with the large fake pregnancy stomach, an I-85 sign, and what appears to be the confiscated cocaine.
Miller and Mitchem are now facing charges for trafficking cocaine, police said. According to county inmate records, both were denied bond and have yet to be released.
South Carolina warned earlier this year that the state is continuing to see a “significant increase” in drug overdose deaths. Most of those deaths are due to opioids, the state said, as the state saw overdose climbs from 1,734 in 2020 to 2,168 in 2021, compared to just 573 overdose deaths in 2012.
“Other drugs are being laced with fentanyl – without the user’s knowledge – which can cause a fatal overdose even in a small quantity,” Sara Goldsby, director of the state’s Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services, said in February. “If there is a possibility of coming into contact with an unsafe drug, it’s important to have naloxone on hand in case of an overdose.”
