SOMERVILLE, Mass. – The $31,535 in drug money came into police headquarters as evidence, but left with the trash.

The money is now buried – perhaps forever – under tons of garbage in a New Hampshire landfill.

The money went missing after a technician who had been cleaning out evidence rooms put it in a broken desk, authorities said.

On Monday, while the technician was out of the office, two other officers doing spring cleaning threw out the desk.

Officers went to the landfill on Wednesday to dig up the cash, but found hundreds of tons of hydraulically compacted waste that could not be sliced with a shovel.

“A very bad mistake,” acting police Chief Robert Bradley said.