Steve Graves

Early Friday morning Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Terry Gann pulled over a minivan traveling very slowly on Interstate 75.

The three New York men told the trooper they were headed to the Bonnaroo Music and Arts festival near Manchester, Tenn.

But they didn't have any luggage, the trooper noticed.

After troopers brought in a drug dog, they found a duffel bag with 3 pounds of green plant material, 2 to 3 pounds of wrapped mushrooms, a large plastic bag with 1 pound of black balls and 100 tablets, according to the highway patrol. One man carried a bag of green plants, wrapped black balls and mushrooms tucked inside his underwear, police said.

All the drugs apparently were fake.

But carrying fake drugs still is a crime. So Joseph Arrington, 51; Lamar Hillie, 29; and David Burnett, 45, were arrested and booked into the Hamilton County Jail on the charge of "possession of drugs for resale, counterfeit drug," according to Michael Browning, spokesman for the highway patrol.

This year, police at the four-day music festival have found more fake drugs than real ones, authorities said.

As of Friday afternoon, Coffee County Sheriff Steve Graves said his deputies had arrested 21 people on drug charges and issued more than 100 citations.

"The majority (of drugs) that we find now is fake," he said. "We're not seeing the quantity that we saw three or four years ago of the real drugs, but the amount of fake is definitely larger."

Arrests and citations vary from minor fines to cases where police can jail and seize the vehicles of those caught with drugs. Authorities said they find mostly marijuana but some pills and mushrooms.

Some dealers will obtain store-bought mushrooms and try to pass them off as psilocybin mushrooms that can cause hallucinations, Sheriff Graves said.

Sheriff's deputies, drug task force agents and private security officers conduct random searches at the entrance to the concert site, and agents from various departments make undercover buys inside the event, he said.

The sheriff said most of the fake drugs are brought in by people from outside the area trying to scam concertgoers and make some quick cash.