Man dies after drinking Cole Cold Pear-D juice laced with cocaine

The bottle of Cole Cold Pear D fruit drink which killed Joromie Lewis (Hampshire Constabulary/PA Wire)

The Food Standards Agency has issued a warning after a man died as a result of drinking pear juice laced with cocaine.

Joromie Lewis, 33, from Hampshire, became ill immediately after drinking just a small amount of the bottled drink last Thursday and died later that day after being admitted to Southampton General Hospital.

A post-mortem examination yielded inconclusive results, but Hampshire police said analysis of the juice showed it contained lethal amounts of cocaine.

The drink, Cole Cold Pear-D, is manufactured in the Caribbean and is not normally exported to the UK. The investigating officer, detective superintendent Richard Pearsons, said: "The investigation suggests that this was likely to be a rogue bottle from a consignment of drugs stored in plastic juice bottles."

Police said that Mr Lewis believed the drink to be genuine pear juice.

So far no other contaminated bottles from the brand have been reported. Anyone who finds a bottle of Cole Cold Pear-D in the UK is advised to take it to their nearest police station without opening it.