Massive Law Enforcement SNAFU in 'Scott Weiland' Screw Up

The Scott Weiland impostor was able to fool 3 BIG law enforcement agencies into believing he was the Stone Temple Pilots front man ... despite the fact he was fingerprinted immediately -- which was a dead giveaway -- and they even had his real name.

It's an unbelievable story and an incredible screw up. Jason Hurley was arrested July 26 on burglary and meth charges. He told Beverly Hills cops he was Scott Weiland and that was good enough for them.

It's breathtaking ... because cops actually fingerprinted Hurley, which should have been enough for them to know it wasn't Weiland, who himself has been fingerprinted before.

And get this ... Hurley's prints came back as HURLEY.

So, the first big screw up ... the press office apparently didn't know about the fingerprint results ... and wrote a press release touting a "celebrity arrest" -- Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots.

Get this ... the D.A. charged Hurley almost immediately with 5 crimes. The case is written as People v. Scott Weiland a.k.a. Jason Michael Hurley. So somehow it got to the D.A. that Hurley was the guy, yet everyone kept saying it was Scott Weiland.

So Hurley went to L.A. County Jail -- where he's been sitting for 3 weeks -- and no one put 2 and 2 together.

Cops didn't have a clue they had misidentified a guy who was in custody ... until TMZ posted a story based on the BHPD press release and Scott fired back he was in a recording studio.