FBI, MI5 plotted drug sting to ruin Rolling Stones, says book

LONDON: A new biography of Mick Jagger has claimed that secret service spies plotted to ruin the ‘Rolling Stones’ with a drug sting in order to stop the band from touring the US and corrupting their youth. The explosive biography by Philip Norman says the FBI asked MI5 to enlist hippie Acid King Dave, real name David Snyderman, to supply the band drugs, reported Daily Mail. Norman, quoting British film agent Maggie Abbott, said Snyderman was caught with drugs in his luggage at the Heathrow Airport and expected to be thrown into jail and instantly deported. Instead, British Customs handed him over to some “heavy people” who hinted they belonged to MI5 and told him there was “a way out” of his predicament. This was to infiltrate the Rolling Stones, supply Mick Jagger and Keith Richards with drugs, and then get them busted. Snyderman’s tip-off resulted in the Redlands Drug Bust at Keith Richards house in West Wittering, Sussex, in 1967. Richards and Jagger were both found guilty but freed on appeal and went on to tour the US.