£500k of drug seized at Glasgow Airport

24/04/2010

By Sam Lock.

Some £500,000-worth of mephedrone has been seized by UK Border Agency officials at Glasgow Airport.

The class B drug, also known as M-Cat, was made illegal last week (April 16th) having formerly been unclassified, BBC News reports.

According to airport workers, 50kg of the substance was intercepted at the airport last week in parcels bound for multiple addresses in Ayrshire.

A 21-year-old man handed himself into police in Saltcoats and has been charged with illegally importing the drug under the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979.

Det Ch Sup Allan Moffat of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency told the BBC: "Our priority is to disrupt and prevent the distribution of this drug.

"With greater enforcement powers we will be firm and tackle those individuals who continue to sell or traffic this harmful drug."

Searches were also carried out at four properties in Scotland linked to the incident.

In related news, Glasgow Airport has now been reopened after closures caused by the volcanic eruption in Iceland, but bosses warn it may take time to clear the backlog of flights that have built up since operations ceased on April 15th.