'Drug-smuggling' Tory MP forced to eat coffee whitener

Like many other British travellers setting off for far-flung destinations, the Conservative MP Michael Fabricant thought it prudent to take his own supply of coffee whitener. But his decision led to a terrifying encounter while trekking in Colombia, where he was detained by soldiers who mistook his jar of white powder for cocaine.

The MP, who was hiking through jungles with a friend, was released only after he was forced at gunpoint to swallow handfuls of Coffee-mate – which resembles the notorious "Colombian marching powder" but has somewhat different effects. "They started to look inside our rucksacks and found a container of white powder," said Mr Fabricant. "They started shouting 'cocaine!' and 'what is it?'"

The MP for Lichfield and Burntwood in Staffordshire, who admits to knowing only three words of Spanish, added: "I was saying: 'Coffee-mate, Coffee-mate'. And they were saying – at least that's what I think they were saying – it can't be coffee because coffee is dark brown and this white.

"I said: 'Well, taste it'. But they wouldn't taste it because raw cocaine is apparently quite poisonous. So, in order to demonstrate it wasn't cocaine I had to take a whole pile of it and sort of throw it down my throat.

"They waited a few minutes to see whether I collapsed or went delirious or said something completely ridiculous like 'Gordon Brown's got a great personality'. Because I didn't say anything too weird they came to the conclusion it wasn't cocaine and let me go."