A San Diego engineering student says he was left alone in a federal holding cell for five days with no food or water, apparently forgotten by the federal drug agents who detained him, reports the San Diego Union-Tribune. Daniel Chong, 24, a University of California San Diego senior, said he was swept up in a Drug Enforcement Administration raid near campus April 20. After questioning, he was told he would be released.
Then the DEA left him locked inside a five-by-10-foot windowless cell. He screamed. He kicked madly at the door. He cried like a baby. Days crawled by. No food. No water. No bathroom. He remembers biting his eyeglasses and using the broken shards to scrawl a note onto his left arm. The DEA acknowledged that agents left someone in a cell after a raid on April 21 — until they found him and had to call paramedics. San Diego Fire-Rescue Department said that medical call came on April 25. At the raid, DEA said it apprehended nine suspects and netted 18,000 ecstasy pills, three weapons and other drugs.