More than five million ‘street valium’ tablets were were seized by Police Scotland last year, as the amount of heroin recovered by cops rose by 80%.

Officers recovered 5.3 million benzodiazepine pills in 2019/20 – more than double the amount seized the previous year and the highest number in a six-year period.

Most of the blue tablets were made up of etizolam, the lethal synthetic substance linked to hundreds of Scotland’s drug deaths.

A Drug Seizures and Offender Characteristics report also revealed the amount of heroin seized by police rose by 80% year on year, from 127 kilograms to 225kg.

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