Federal authorities said they will review their detention policies after they left a forgotten 24-year-old college student in a holding cell for five days.
The unidentified man and eight others were detained following a drug bust on April 21 that yielded 18 000 ecstasy pills, other drugs and weapons, according to the U-T San Diego newspaper.
Seven suspects were taken to county jail, and another was released, but the student from the University of California, San Diego, was somehow left behind, said Amy Roderick, a spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
“Each suspect was interviewed in separate interview rooms, and frequently moved around between rooms and cells,” Roderick told the newspaper. “The individual in question was accidentally left in one of the cells.”
It wasn't clear if he had any access to food or water.
Last Wednesday, paramedics were summoned to the cell and took the man to a hospital, where he was treated and released.
Roderick said the man told agents he had used a white substance he found in the cell, which tested positive for methamphetamine. - Sapa-AP