Police called to a Walthamstow flat found the dead body of a suspected drug dealer.
Officers found the evidence suggested the dead man, Hakim Kherroubi, had been involved in Class A drug-dealing – but failed to launch any investigation into his activities or his links to others.
Instead, they concluded that there was nobody else involved in his drug-dealing operation – a decision the Metropolitan Police Service was unable to explain when questioned by Newsquest.
No evidence was found in Kherroubi’s flat, in Rally Building, Track Street, to suggest he had been manufacturing the drugs himself.
Kherroubi, 52, was found dead by an old school friend from Algeria, after being contacted from the Netherlands, where Kherroubi’s brother had been trying to reach him by phone without success.
But when an inquest was held this month into Kherroubi’s death, neither his brother nor any other family attended, either in person or remotely.
The court heard staff at East London Coroner’s Court had spent months phoning and emailing Kherroubi’s brother, but never received a single response.
Police were called to the scene of Kherroubi’s death on July 3, 2024.
When officers searched his room, they found between 50 and 60 “snack bags” filled with white powder, hidden inside a protein powder tub full of rice.
Kherroubi was lying dead on his bed with dried, off-white liquid around his mouth.
He had taken a potentially fatal quantity of an opioid drug.
An anxiety drug was also found in his blood and urine, along with metabolites of cocaine and a tranquiliser.
He had not been prescribed any of the drugs.
GP records showed he had been diagnosed as alcohol-dependent in 2023 but was only prescribed one drug – an indigestion medication.
Senior east London coroner Graeme Irvine presided over an inquest into Kherroubi’s death on March 13.
Newsquest has been trying without success to obtain explanations from the Met Police ever since over its lack of investigation into the drug-dealing operation it appeared to have stumbled on.
Kherroubi, 52, was last seen alive by friends in late June.
In a statement to the inquest, friend Sofiane Yagoubi, who had known him since they attended primary school together in Algeria, described being contacted by his friend’s brother on July 3 and asked to go and check on him.
After being let into the building by a neighbour, Mr Yagoubi found Mr Kherroubi’s flat unlocked.
Upon discovering the body, he wrote, “I thought I was going to vomit.”
Lividity – when the blood sinks to the bottom of the body and begins changing the colour of the skin – had set in.
There was a blister pack of the opioid on the bedside table and “a large amount of rice on the floor”.
Police noticed a large whey protein tub which seemed “very heavy”. It was filled with rice.
Inside it, officers found three chewing gum pots which, between them, contained 50 to 60 bags of white, powdery rocks.
Police told Mr Irvine the bags were “Class A drugs” – but when questioned by Newsquest, the force admitted it had never actually had them tested.
Asked why, it suggested that had been the coroner’s job.
The search also turned up “a number of kitchen knives”, three mobile phones – including two described as “Nokia brick phones” – and police noticed Mr Kherroubi had a camera set up “above the doorway to his bedroom”.
Mr Kherroubi’s cause of death was given as acute cardiorespiratory failure, caused by mixed drug toxicity.
Police deemed it non-suspicious, said senior coroner Graeme Irvine, after finding “no signs of any crime having taken place which could have caused the death”.
“It seems to me that the most appropriate conclusion would be drug-related death,” he ruled.
The Met said: “A number of items including suspected Class A drugs and items associated with the supply of drugs were found inside Mr Kherroubi’s home. There was no indication of anyone else being involved.”
Asked how it had concluded there was no one else involved, in the absence of any evidence Kherroubi had been manufacturing them himself, the force was unable to provide an answer.
