Police reportedly raided a workshop and discovered 'nearly £900,000 of drugs ' before realising it was just Haribo sweets.
Officers announced on Twitter that they had found the haul in Saint-Ouen near Paris on Wednesday and a tweet showing pictures of the 'drugs' - in both powder and pill form - was accompanied by a caption boasting of a successful investigation.
The post added that drugs worth £860,000 (€1million) had been seized, while stolen mobile phones were also found.
But toxicology analysis carried out on Thursday concluded "the powder seized in the apartment was a neutral powder, not falling under either narcotic products or poisonous substance", according to Le Parisien.
And it has now been reported that the matter was actually "crushed Tagada strawberries" - made famous by Haribo.
The sweet, also known as 'Fraise Tagada', normally comes in the shape of an inflated pink strawberry and is covered in fine sugar and scented.
A suspect is still expected to face prosecution over the stolen phones - but it is unclear what action will be taken over the 'drugs'.
Drug seizures can be misidentified, with authorities in Thailand previously claiming to have seized almost $1billion worth of ketamine - which turned out to be cleaning agent.
Officials discovered the substance in November 2020 and declared it the country's largest ever ketamine bust.
But tests revealed it to actually be trisodium phosphate, a compound used in cleaning agents.
A "technical error" in field testing was blamed for the error, reports the BBC.
