Cops: White Powder in DMX Home Not Drugs

Apparently, that dog won't hunt.

Arizona authorities who raided the home of rapper DMX last Friday revealed that a fine white powder they thought might have been an illegal narcotic has turned out to be nothing of the kind.

"We're still looking at what type of powder that is," Sheriff Joe Arpaio told local station KOLD News 13 on Tuesday.  "But we did seize a usable quantity of marijuana. He does have a drug situation."

Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies executed search warrants on the property in the Phoenix suburb of Cave Creek after being tipped off earlier this month about animal cruelty allegations involving a dozen "distressed" pit bulls owned by the 36-year-old emcee that were living in inhumane conditions.

After warning DMX's reps that they might take action if the animals' care didn't improve, investigators decided to move in and evacuate the dogs, which appeared to be emaciated. While they were at it, they also sniffed around a bit.

Aside from seizing a stash of the green stuff, officers discovered a mystery substance in his bedroom, which tests later found was not cocaine or methamphetamines as they assumed.  No word on exactly what the chalky white stuff actually was.

Also confiscated was a significant amount of drug paraphernalia, three dog carcasses that were buried in the backyard and a stockpile of assault weapons and ammunition.

No charges have been filed against the hip-hopster, whose real name is Earl Simmons.

Officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were working to figure out whether DMX had a permit for the guns, while detectives were seeking to determine how the canines died as part of an animal cruelty probe.

Police did note however that so far they've yet to find signs of any dogfighting—à la the recent scandal that engulfed NFL superstar Michael Vick.

X's New York-based attorney, Murray Richman, could not be reached for comment. But he had previously told the Associated Press that the rapper hadn't been to the house in months despite his neighbors' assertions that they had seen him a mere three weeks ago. As for the pot, he argued it could have belonged to any number of people visiting there.

"The sheriff says he found it, I don't know if he found it, if he found it, I guess he found it," said the lawyer. "Does it necessarily belong to Mr. Simmons? Mr. Simmons hasn't been there in two-and-a-half months. Other people have. How does he attribute that to Mr. Simmons?"

As for the dog situation, Richman said his client was "extremely disturbed" about any mistreatment and laid the blame with a caretaker who failed to do his job.

"He loves dogs—he loves these animals," added the legal eagle. "Those dogs are practically his family."

Not to mention a very big part of his gangsta cred.

The trouble-prone rapper, who has "Pit Bull" tattooed across his back, named his 2006 album, Year of the Dog. . .Again and a greatest hits collection released last June, The Definition of X: The Pick of the Litter.

But animal abuse allegations have dogged him before. In 1999, police raided DMX's residence in Teaneck, New Jersey, and uncovered a huge cache of guns as well as 13 caged pit bulls.  After copping a plea in 2002 that spared him jail time, he ended up making a series of PSAs urging children to be kind to animals.

The Ruff Ryder's rap sheet, meanwhile, continues to look like a dog chasing his tail.

Earlier this month, a New York judge ordered DMX to pay a $242,000 judgment to a fashion company for failing to fulfill a contract to promote a canine clothing line. He's also wanted on a pair of bench warrants issued in April by a city court in White Plains, New York, for a skipping several pretrial hearings for two separate driving infractions.

And in June 2006, police in Scottsdale, Arizona, cited him for carrying a concealed handgun outside a nightclub.