Drug Laced Bread: 40 Plus People Sickened By Tainted Holiday Bread From California Bakery

Drug laced bread sold at a bakery in California sickened over 40 people. According to the New York Daily News, the holiday bread was made at Cholula’s Bakery in Santa Ana, which was said to be “cockroach-infested.” The bread was laced with a synthetic drug which caused several customers to experience hallucinations, palpitations, and breathing problems. The bread was made for Three Kings Day, also known as the Feast of the Epiphany (Jan. 6). Those sickened by the traditional Rosca de Reyes — a fruitcake of sorts — didn’t have much of a pleasant celebration at all.

Fidelina Gutierrez, who was sickened after eating the bread, said the following.

“It felt as if I was in another dimension. I could feel it closing my throat. It was bad, bad, bad.”

The drug laced bread caused several people to seek medical attention. According to NBC Los Angeles, police have closed the bakery. It will remain closed until the owners can comply with strict regulations regarding cleanliness. Cpl. Anthony Bertagna, of the Santa Ana Police Department, said that he hopes that the type of drug that was in the bread is identified.

“The only common denominator with all these patients is they ate this Three Kings bread in celebration of the holiday. There are hundreds of types of synthetic drugs. Hopefully they can isolate what exactly we’re talking about.”

If you or someone you know may have consumed the tainted bread, you are encouraged to call the Santa Ana Police Crimes Against Persons Unit at 714-245-8390.

For a full list of bakeries that sold the drug laced bread, click here.

This certainly isn’t the first time that food has been tainted with drugs. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, steaks at a Walmart in Florida were apparently laced with drugs, and a family who purchased them ended up falling ill after eating them.

Ronnie Morales, Jessica Rosado, and her two daughters Elyana, 7, and Rayna, 6, were rushed to the hospital after eating the steaks and having a bad reaction to the drugs that somehow got in the meat. There was an investigation surrounding the incident, but police were completely baffled as to what had happened. These were the only people who complained about getting sick after eating the steaks, which reportedly contained LSD.

“All of the victims recovered completely and none are suffering any adverse effects from the LSD exposure. There is no further investigation at this time,” said Detective Rachel Cholnik back in November following an investigation. Police have since closed that investigation.

[Photo courtesy of the Food Network]