A CONSERVATIVE MP trekking in Colombia was held at gunpoint in the jungle and forced to eat coffee whitener from a jar in his backpack after soldiers mistook it for cocaine.
Michael Fabricant was on a walking holiday in South America with a friend when they were stopped by a group of armed men in camouflage uniforms.
The soldiers found a container full of coffee whitener in their bags and suspected it was drugs.
The MP for Lichfield and Burntwood in Staffordshire was on a trekking holiday in the South American country – notorious for its cocaine trade – during the summer recess last month.
Mr Fabricant yesterday said: "I'm a Conservative MP for a small sleepy city in Staffordshire, I'm not exactly the archetypal cocaine baron. It was hairy stuff, there were seven heavily-armed men on a foot patrol who approached us as we were walking along a jungle trail.
"I knew Colombia could be a little dangerous as there is kidnapping and a major drug industry. But I was in a range of mountains north-east of Santa Marta on the coast, which is not generally considered to be drug-baron country and is relatively safer than the inland areas.
"The soldiers searched through my bag and pulled out a clear container containing some white powder, which was nothing more than powdered milk."
The full article contains 234 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
