BLACKBURN police have made their biggest ever seizure of the party drug known as ‘bubble’.

The four kilogrammes of Mephedrone, worth £80,000, were found after a Ford Fiesta was routinely stopped by officers in Gorse Street.

Less than a gram is generally snorted at a time, meaning the four kilogrammes would have provided thousands of hits on the streets of East Lancashire.

Officers who searched the vehicle said they found the drugs under a passenger seat.

The mephedrone was wrapped in a carrier bag.

Police said the substance did not immediately look like drugs and had the grainy consistency of sugar, before tests confirmed its identity.

Officers said it was rare to find ‘bubble’ in such large amounts.

They said part of their investigation would now be to trace where the ‘drug’ has come from, whether locally, from out of the area or via the internet.

Mephedrone was reclassified as an illegal drug last year following concerns over its use among young people.

It derived from plant food and is said to have a similar affect to cocaine when snorted.

A police spokesman said: “It is quite rare to find any drug in these quantities.

"We will now be looking into where this vehicle has been and where the drugs have come from.”

Shaun Shaw, 36, of Florence Place, Blackburn, will appear before Blackburn Magistrates’ Court on 21 June charged with possession with intent to supply Class B drugs in connection with the find.

Last October, Colne teenager Rebecca Cardwell was confirmed as the country’s first official victim of mephedrone after dying from acute liver failure three days after taking the drug.

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