A simple hug between a kindergarten teacher and his student has sparked a criminal investigation in Colorado, KCNC reports.
It started when the teacher hugged the little girl as she walked into class, but he noticed something inside the hood of her coat: a bag of cocaine. Police say it was a hefty quantity of drugs in the bag, as well.
"It was completely shocking," Steamboat Springs Police Detective Sam Silva told reporters. "If she would have gotten into that, just being cocaine or given to friends not knowing what it was, it would have killed multiple children, just cocaine is that lethal."
Now authorities are searching for her father, who's accused of placing the drugs in his daughter's coat after a recent divorce with the mother.
The story has stoked the fears of fentanyl in the Centennial State, which has seen more people succumbing to the deadly drug through overdoses. It's commonly laced with other substances, like cocaine, marijuana, and pills.
In the last two years, Steamboat Springs Police has responded to 15 fentanyl overdoses, according to Silva. Seven people have died from them. The detective doesn't know if the cocaine planted on the girl had fentanyl in it, but he fears the next victim could be a child if these drugs keep circulating within the community.
"I think it’s only a matter of time before we see something that tragic," Silva says.