Stranger Things’ Charlie Heaton Refused Entry To US After Caught At LAX With Cocaine

Various outlets are this evening reporting that the reason that Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton wasn’t at the premiere Thursday night in Los Angeles because on Saturday when the 23-year old had arrived from the UK at LAX, sniffer dogs alerted officials to traces of white powder in his bags. The powder, it turned out, was cocaine.

Law enforcement confirmed to THR that:

They had found traces of cocaine on Heaton and that the actor admitted the consumption of drugs to them [sic].

While drugs were found it was deemed to be only a “personal use” amount, so rather than being charged, Heaton, who plays the character of Jonathan Byers on the hit Netflix series was put on another flight later the same day back to London. Had there been a “substantial amount” then he would have been charged and arrested.

US Customs and Border Protection have declined to comment on if it would prove to be a problem in the future for Heaton to return to the country. Stranger Things isn’t Heaton’s only US-based project at the moment, with Fox’s Marvel-based New Mutants film slated to release on April 13th (however principal photography did wrap back in mid-September).  In New Mutants, he’ll be playing the mutant Cannonball.

Heaton has been in a dozen productions since first appearing in ITV’s crime drama DCI Banks. His other credits include BBC’s long-running British medical drama, Casualty, Shut In, and As You Are.

The UK-based Sun reports that a representative for Heaton had only this to say, “I have no comment to make.”