updated 9:49 a.m. ET May 12, 2005

MINNEAPOLIS - Vikings running back Onterrio Smith, who has a history of violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy, was briefly detained by airport police last month after they found an elaborate kit used to beat drug tests.

Police at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport questioned Smith on April 21 after a search of his bag discovered vials of white powder, according to a police report.

Smith told officers it was dried urine used in conjunction with a device called “The Original Whizzinator.” The officer who filed the report wrote that Smith “told me that it was dried urine for making a clean urine test.” In addition, he had a bottle of pills labeled “cleansing formula.”

Smith told police he was taking the vials to his cousin. The police report didn’t say where Smith was traveling. The Star Tribune first reported the story Wednesday.

“We will continue to monitor the situation as we would with any other and evaluate it from there,” coach Mike Tice said in a statement Wednesday.

Smith’s agent, Douglas Hendrickson, didn’t immediately return a message left at his office.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said league rules state that failing to cooperate with a drug test was the same as failing it, but he wasn’t sure whether there was any penalty for possessing a device designed to beat such a test.

Smith was suspended last season for four games after testing positive for marijuana. It was his second “strike” in the NFL’s substance-abuse program. He would earn a yearlong suspension for a third violation.

The report filed April 26 says a tube of toothpaste set off an alarm as a bag Smith was carrying was being scanned. Six or seven vials of white powder were discovered in the bag. Smith was detained, questioned and allowed to leave, the report said.

In 2000, Smith was kicked out of Tennessee for using marijuana. He finished his college career at Oregon. Smith rushed for 579 yards as a rookie and led the Vikings last season with 544 yards.

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