Suspected criminals win $35k payout after cops confuse lollies for drugs

Three Americans falsely accused of drug possession have won a $35,000 payout after police confused their lollies for crystal meth.

The New York Police Department bizarrely mistook the trio's hard rock candy for illicit drugs when they were searched in Coney Island last year.

The lollies were Jolly Ranchers, which are small coloured rock candy sweets that are said to resemble the stylised drugs used on the hit television show Breaking Bad.

But "there is no evidence in the scientific literature that crystal meth looks like Jolly Ranchers or rock candy", the trio's lawyer Kenneth Smith told the New York Daily News.

"(Breaking Bad character) Walter White may dictate what drugs look like in TV land, but not the narcotics policy of the NYPD," Mr Smith said.

The lollies were still in their wrappers at the time.

Love Olatunjiojo, Omar Ferriera and Jimmy Santos successfully sued for $US33,000 in damages.

After leaving a sweets store in Coney Island, the trio were handcuffed by officers who claimed an undercover colleague had seen them selling drugs.