Miaow miaow drug stash busted in Muswell Hill

A LARGE stash of the newly-illegal drug mephedrone found in three Muswell Hill homes may already have been offered around local schools. Officers raided three homes in Muswell Hill and found a substantial amount of white powder believed

Rhiannon Evans

A LARGE stash of the newly-illegal drug mephedrone found in three Muswell Hill homes may already have been offered around local schools.

Officers raided three homes in Muswell Hill and found a "substantial amount of white powder" believed to be mephedrone - also known as miaow miaow - which was classified as a Class B drug last month.

They also discovered scales, pill boxes and around �50,000 in cash during the raids on April 22.

Three males aged 17 and another aged 21 were arrested and bailed, while investigations and tests are carried out on the powder. Because of the young ages of those questioned, police believe they may have been destined for local schools.

Police from Barnet's Finchley Church End Safer Neighbour-hoods Team were first tipped off by a GP who had seen a 14-year-old patient possibly suffering the side effects of mephedrone.

However, this was before the drug became illegal, so they had to wait to act on the information they gathered.

On April 21 - four days after it became illegal - the team raided an office block in Dollis Park, Barnet, and discovered three large bags totalling 1kg and smaller bags of what they believed to be mephedrone. They also found two computers, documentation and information from a website on where the drug can be bought.

Based on this information, the team raided the three Muswell Hill homes, finding a similar amount of drugs in each home as they had discovered in Dollis Park.

Team sergeant Alison Preece said: "With these suspects' ages, they had very close links with the schools and we do have intelligence to suggest they were trying to push them around schools."

If local children are offered the drug, she urged them to walk away. "Turn it away and have nothing to do with it," she said. "It's still very much untested, we know little about the long term effects."

"It would be silly to get involved and it costs a lot of money - it's getting more and more expensive as time goes on because of its rarity now."

She added: "Obviously we are still waiting for tests to confirm the exact nature of the substance we found, but the indication is that it is mephedrone.

"This substance has only recently become illegal so there are people stockpiling quantities of it from when it was still legal and are now trying to reap the rewards of selling it now that it is no longer freely available.

"I am glad we have been able to remove such a large quantity of an inherently dangerous and illegal substance and hopefully prevent a few people from potentially coming to harm."

She added that the call from their informant was vital, so any help from vigilant members of the public is always appreciated.