Police seize £25m of ecstasy and cocaine in Merseyside drugs haul

Police officers have seized a £25m haul of class A and class B drugs during a raid on a flat in Liverpool's Garston district. The narcotics are believed to include an estimated 330lbs (160kg) of mephedrone and amphetamine, some of which was found stashed inside a freezer.

The haul included 24,000 ecstasy tablets and 4kg of cocaine that has now been removed by specialist police officers from the flat in Lowbridge Court on the south side of the city.

The drugs stash was found by officers of Titan, the regional organised crime unit in north-west England. Officers had followed a Ford Fiesta to a unit on the Huyton Industrial Estate in Huyton, which led to locating the flat where the discovery was made.

Five men between 22-44 have been arrested on suspicion of drugs offences. They are currently in police custody for questioning.

Detective Superintendent Jason Hudson, head of the Titan unit, said: "This is a massive seizure of what is estimated to be more than 160kg kilos of what we believe are class A and B drugs – we think we could be looking at drugs with a total street value of £25m.

"This clearly represents a massive seizure of dangerous drugs that would undoubtedly have been supplied to communities across the North West and beyond and I am delighted that we have been able to recover them and take them out of the hands of criminals."

Hudson said that the operation had been a "fast-moving and fluid situation". He said that Titan detectives had worked closely with Merseyside Police to ensure that suspects were quickly arrested and all the available evidence was secured.