Sweet, flavored cocaine now in U.S.

SACRAMENTO, June 26 (UPI) -- Police in California report a growing trend in cocaine traffickers adding flavors to the powder and charging 40 percent more for it.

The most recent arrests were in Yolo County where deputies arrested six people and seized three pounds of sweetened cocaine flavored with strawberry or coconut, the Sacramento Bee reported Tuesday.

Yolo Narcotic Enforcement Team Cmdr. Roy Giorgi told the newspaper the street price of the flavored varieties is about 40 percent higher than unflavored.

"They (users) said regular cocaine gives a medicine taste in the back of the throat when snorted," Giorgi said. "With the flavored, you get a strawberry taste."

He said there have been reports nationally of cocaine also being flavored with vanilla, banana and chocolate, and that other drugs such as Ecstasy and methamphetamines are also popping up with flavors.