PATRIOTS AARON HERNANDEZ SCHEDULED TO BE ARRESTED, GETS DROPPED BY MUSCLE MILK

AARON HERNANDEZ

Police plan to arrest NFL star Aaron Hernandez for allegedly destroying potentially crucial evidence in the murder case of a friend.
The New England Patriots tight end also faces financial loss, after a sponsor, the company that makes Muscle Milk, dropped him from an endorsement deal “effective immediately.”
During a day of conflicting reports, law-enforcement sources said an arrest warrant for obstruction of justice has been issued for Hernandez but not yet served.

The key to the warrant is that investigators concluded Hernandez’s home security system, with video surveillance, had been intentionally trashed.

A cellphone belonging to Hernandez, 23, was turned over to cops smashed “to pieces,” and his mansion in a Boston suburb was scrubbed clean after the body of Odin Lloyd was found slain “execution-style” on Monday a mile away.

ODIN LLOYD

Three search warrants were issued yesterday.

Two state policemen briefly visited Hernandez’s North Attleborough, Mass., home yesterday, but he spent most of the day at his lawyers’ Boston offices.

In other developments:

* CytoSport, a California-based firm that makes Muscle Milk and other nutritional supplements for athletes, said it was ending its contract with Hernandez “in light of the investigation.”

It did not say how much the contract was worth or give other details.

* The Boston Globe reported the hot-tempered Hernandez threatened a teammate, star receiver Wes Welker, shortly after being drafted in 2010.

It said that soon after reporting to the team, Hernandez grew frustrated when he couldn’t operate video equipment to watch team film. When he asked for help, Welker said, “Rookie, you figure it out.”

“F--k you, Wes. I’ll f--k you up!” Hernandez shot back.

Hernandez’s home was searched after the body of Lloyd, a 27-year-old semi-professional football player for the Boston Bandits, was found Monday night.

Lloyd was shot in the back of the head, and his death was declared a homicide, officials said.

Cops have not declared Hernandez to be a suspect. But he became a focus of the investigation after nightclub and neighborhood surveillance videos showed him with Lloyd and two other men hours before Lloyd’s death.