No meth; hotel incident simple case of a salt

PORTALES — Police suspected a large supply of methamphetamine. But the material found in a Portales hotel on Sept. 17 turned out to be sodium chloride, or table salt.

Portales police testing initially identified the substances found in multiple locations around the Super 8 Hotel as meth. But New Mexico State Police said precise testing at a police lab found the material to be the kind of salt one puts on French fries.

It was an easy mistake to make, NMSP spokesperson Dusty Francisco said, because the method used to test the crystals can sometimes identify sodium chloride as meth.

Jan Halamek, a professor of forensic toxicology at Texas Tech University, said the mistake could have happened with a field test, especially if salty water was the material tested.

Field tests, he said, “are very simple,” and it would be possible for a very salty water sample to turn up as positive for methamphetamine.

Halamek said he would have to know more about the testing method used before he could make any kind of determination, however.

Francisco said the material was probably crystals leaked from a water-softening system into the hotel’s water supply.

On Sept. 17, a hotel guest reported being struck in the eye by a piece of “crystal meth” that had shot out of a water faucet.

Similar material was found in different parts of the hotel, including within ice machines.

The hotel was closed down, police said, while city water supplies and those of nearby buildings, including a neighboring motel, were tested.

By last Monday afternoon, however, the Super 8 had reopened, a manager said.

Portales police have declined to respond to questions about the incident. The News on Thursday requested a copy of the police incident report, but was told that report would not be made available until this week.

The Albuquerque Journal and The News Staff Writer Steven Hansen contributed to this report.