Police: North Carolina woman hid 1.5K grams of cocaine in fake pregnancy belly

Two individuals were arrested in South Carolina after police made an unusual discovery during a traffic stop: cocaine hidden underneath what appeared to be a pregnant woman’s belly. 

Anderson County deputies pulled over Anthony Miller and Cemeka Mitchem, who was pregnant, as part of a “proactive patrol” on Interstate 85 after they were zigzagging through traffic and almost crashed with an 18-wheeler.  

Police, however, noticed something was off when the couple “gave conflicting information about her due date,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement on Sunday. 

As soon as Mitchem realized that the police were getting suspicious of their story, she “immediately took off running.” 

"Very quickly drugs fell from the fake rubber stomach," police said, adding that they found more than 1,500 grams of cocaine at the scene. 

The sheriff’s office shared an image of a police officer posing with the rubber pregnancy stomach in a Facebook post that has since been deleted.  

Miller and Mitchem are facing charges of trafficking cocaine. They were both denied bond and remain in custody, according to county inmate records. 

South Carolina has seen a “significant increase” in deaths caused by drug overdose. In 2021, the state saw 2,168 overdose deaths, compared to 1,734 in 2020 and only 573 in 2012, according to a report by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC). 

"Other drugs are being laced with fentanyl – without the user's knowledge – which can cause a fatal overdose even in a small quantity,"

Sara Goldsby, director of the state's Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services, said in February. "If there is a possibility of coming into contact with an unsafe drug, it's important to have naloxone on hand in case of an overdose."