Police probe Moss dealers

Kate Moss: filmed allegedly snorting cocaine

Robert Mendick|Richard Edwards|Flora Stubbs|Evening Standard

11 April 2012

Police are investigating claims that two acquaintances of singer Pete Doherty supplied the supermodel Kate Moss with cocaine and then filmed her snorting the drug, the Evening Standard can reveal today.

The drug dealers, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are suspected by Doherty's inner circle of trapping Moss, thereby wrecking her career.

Evening Standard can also identify for the first time the music studio where the drug-taking session took place.

It is the Metropolis studio in Chiswick, used by artists including Madonna, Elton John and U2.

Police investigating Moss's drugtaking have told the Standard: "Details have been passed on [about the two men] and we will investigate them as part of the ongoing inquiry.

"Officers from the Specialist Crime Directorate conducted a search of an address in W4 on 29 September. We are not prepared to discuss anything further."

Officers will interview Moss when she arrives back in Britain. She is undergoing rehabilitation, believed to be at the Meadows clinic, Arizona.

A senior source close to Doherty said that the two men were the prime suspects who filmed the supermodel and then sold the footage to the Daily Mirror for a six-figure sum, probably through an intermediary.

The subsequent exposé led to Moss, 31, losing millions of pounds in advertising contracts and prompted the investigation by the Met.

Doherty, 26, lead singer of the pop group Babyshambles, was arrested this week, although he claims not to have taken any drugs while on his current UK tour.

The source close to the vocalist told the Standard that the two drug dealers haven't been seen among Doherty's hangers-on since the story emerged last month.

The men, who both live in east London, were at the Metropolis recording session for the new Babyshambles album. They are understood to have been invited by Doherty.

Up to 15 people were present at the recording. "The two under suspicion are the drug dealers," the source said. "I cannot be sure there isn't somebody else involved.

"I don't like pointing the finger at those people. I have spoken to a lot of people about it.

"I can't be sure but the two people mentioned as being there are obviously under suspicion. Everybody else is accounted for.

"The men in question are both from east London. I hadn't seen them down there before. If they did do it they have probably left the country by now. But the only way we can know for sure is through the Mirror."

The source hinted that a third person-brokered the deal between the dealers and the Mirror and speculated that the intermediary may well have made the most money from the deal while the paper may not have been aware it had paid drug dealers.

A spokeswoman for the Mirror said last night: "Your story is 100 per cent wrong." She refused to make any further comment.

A Metropolis studio spokeswoman said: "We cannot confirm it is us. We cannot say anything either way. We are not really talking about it."

Among those present at the studio and not implicated include Babyshambles' band members Adam Ficek, the drummer, Patrick Walden, the guitarist, and Drew McConnell, the bass guitarist.

Others present but also not involved were Mick Jones, formerly of the Clash and producer of the Babyshambles album, and several close friends of Doherty. They include Pete "Wolfman" Wolfe, Alan Wass, a man known just as "Ronnie" and another man known as The General. Sources have also ruled out the two studio engineers thought to have been present.

Matt Bates, Doherty's agent, said: "Everybody has their suspicions but we still don't know who did it. There were a lot of people. It isn't a simple Scooby-Doo-style investigation. There were all sorts of people and it doesn't have to be somebody connected to the band."

Members of the band refused to comment on our findings.

McConnell said he was pleased to be back on tour when questioned by the Standard as he prepared for a gig in Southend this week but when asked if he thought the two men had made the tape he refused to comment.

As soon as the Standard inquired about the secret film, our reporters were immediately evicted from the concert venue. Alex Hannaford, whose biography on Doherty, Last Of The Rock Romantics, is published next year, said today: "There are a lot of people who have been hanging around with Doherty who are well connected with drugs and are really horrible, violent people and nothing to do with the band.

"They are new people hanging around in the drugs circle. When I first saw the pictures my immediate thought was it was somebody in that circle."

Have you any information about the two men suspected of filming Kate Moss snorting cocaine? Ring the Evening Standard newsdesk on 0207 938 7522.

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