Indian police said the rats ate more than 1,000 pounds of grass

Half a tonne of seized marijuana has disappeared from a stash in India – and now police are pointing the finger at the little four-legged offenders.

Police in Mathura, a city about 100 miles south of New Delhi, said rats had eaten a large stash of marijuana filled with enough marijuana to roll 1.3 million joints after a court ordered the drugs be destroyed. presented as evidence on trial for smuggling, The National reported.

“There is no place in the police station where stored goods can be saved from rats,” prosecutors said, according to the agency.

The court seems unconvinced, demanded evidence that the rodents had eaten the drugs, which were valued at around $70,000, the Times of India reported. The judge also ordered the police to stop the “mouse threat”.

Police yet November 26 to provide evidence that rodents are to blame, India Today reported.

Mathira police did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on Nov. 25.

“Small-sized rats are not afraid of the police,” Mathura police told the court, the Times of India reported, adding that officers “cannot be experts in solving every problem.”

Rodents were blamed in the past for marijuana, which the judge noted in court, reports the BBC.

Eight police officers in Argentina were fired in 2018 after they said the same amount of weed had been released eaten by micethe claim of forensic experts was undermined in court, The Guardian reports.

Mice were consistently consumed dough laced with THCthe main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, according to a 2019 study, although the dough with the highest THC levels was eaten less.

An earlier study by the University of British Columbia found that rats fed THC foods ‘unsurprisingly’ became lazy.

India has strict laws governing marijuana; Producers of the plant can be punished up to 10 years in prison, according to the government.