Four charged after police seize drugs worth £25m on Merseyside

Four men have been charged after police seized £25 million worth of drugs stashed inside a freezer.

John Michael McMahon, 44, Edward McCabe, 36, Paul Morris, 30, and Colin Thomas Rafferty, 28, all from Merseyside, were all charged with conspiracy to supply cocaine, ecstasy, amphetamine, and mephedrone.

Police uncovered dozens of bags of white powder stuffed inside a freezer in a flat in Garston, south Liverpool, on Friday.

The Titan regional organised crime unit was led to the flat in Lowbridge Court after Merseyside Police discovered the drugs on a routine patrol.

Officers followed a suspicious-looking car to a tyre fitting centre in Brickfield industrial unit in Huyton.

They seized 24,000 ecstasy tablets, 4kg of amphetamine and an estimated 1kg of cocaine, some of which were hidden inside a tyre.

Detective Superintendent Jason Hudson, head of operations at Titan, 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 £25 million.

"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.

"We continue to target those involved in the top echelons of criminality in the North West and this success follows on from many previous successes.

"Today's operation was a fast-moving and fluid situation and Titan detectives worked closely with colleagues within Merseyside Police to ensure that suspects were quickly arrested and all the available evidence was secured."

The four men will appear at Liverpool Magistrates' Court on Monday.

A fifth Merseyside man, aged 22, was questioned and released on police bail.