Suspected drug lab had no drugs

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NEW YORK, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- The New York Police Department said a raid on a suspected drug lab found only a man mixing table salt with baking soda.

Police said officers raided a Manhattan co-op Monday on drug manufacturing allegations and discovered a man creating several pounds of a white substance, the New York Post reported Tuesday.

Investigators initially suspected the substance to be illegal bath salts, a designer drug, but they soon discovered the 44-year-old man was only mixing table salt with baking soda.

Police said the man may have been suffering from a mental illness and was taken to Roosevelt Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. They said he may have believed he was creating bath salts.