Amherst police accused a man of dealing meth. It was salt.

A Belchertown man was arrested and charged in early June with drug trafficking when an Amherst police officer thought a salt grinder was full of methamphetamine, according to court records.

More than a month later, prosecutors dropped the charges after the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory determined that no controlled substance was found, according to the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office. 

The man was pulled over on June 8 around 1 a.m., according to a criminal complaint filed in Eastern Hampshire District Court by Amherst police officer Joseph Worthley. He appeared to be driving over the middle line, Worthley reported, and the officer allegedly smelled marijuana when he approached the vehicle.

According to court documents, the 36-year-old man admitted to the officer that he had smoked a joint about an hour before and was arrested. But when Worthley searched his car, the charges became more serious.

Worthley said there were “large crystal-like rocks” in a salt grinder “directly within (the man’s) immediate reach.” The officer also noted that he had two additional cell phones and appeared “extremely tense and nervous of my presence.”

“It should be noted these rocks were much larger than that of table salt, and were identical to that of methamphetamine,” Worthley wrote. “These crystal rocks were weighed and came out to 52 grams.”

The man was then charged with trafficking methamphetamine more than 36 grams, which carries a mandatory sentence of at least three and a half years in prison.

The Amherst Police Department declined to comment on the arrest.

Laurie Loisel, a spokesperson for the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office said the office “promptly dismissed the methamphetamine trafficking charge” after the results of the salt came back.

“Law enforcement officers routinely rely upon their training, education and experience when identifying suspected narcotics in the field,” Loisel wrote in a statement. “Narcotics can sometimes resemble innocuous substances, and are often packaged or concealed in a way to avoid detection.”

MassLive initially reported on the mix-up, including that the man’s lawyer argued that the salt grinder was clearly filled with salt.

“My client does assert that the salt shaker was completely sealed, unopened, and it’s also the type that can’t be filled without breaking it,” said his original lawyer, Sydney Sheerin, according to MassLive. “There was also no field testing done to indicate that it wasn’t just salt.”

The drug trafficking charge was dropped July 31, according to court records, along with the other charges including operating under the influence and uninsured motor vehicle. The man’s lawyer did not return a request for comment on Monday.