The Rolling Stones Drug Bust of 1967: Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, and the Trial That Rocked Britain
Rockapedia, 2026
On the 12th of February, 1967, Keith Richards was hanging out at his Sussex place with a few friends when the party came to a very abrupt end. The Sussex police showed up, led by Detective Sergeant Norman Pilcher, claiming drugs were being used on the premises. Armed with a search warrant, they barged right in.
Richards later recalled the moment in his autobiography with classic Keith flair:
There’s a knock on the door, I look out the window, and there’s this whole lot of dwarves outside...I’d never been busted before, and I’m still on acid.
After tearing the house apart, police found four pep pills in a green velvet jacket. Mick Jagger said the jacket was his, though the pills actually belonged to Marianne Faithfull. Also noted in the official report was a naked woman, identified only as Miss X,
wrapped in a fur rug. Surprise: that was Marianne too. Art dealer Robert Fraser was also at the gathering and was found carrying heroin tablets. No one was arrested that night, but Jagger, Richards, and Fraser were later charged with drug offenses.
The trial ran from the 27-29th June, 1967. Jagger even spent the night before sentencing in Lewes Prison. At this point, the Stones had been branded public enemy number one, and the jury didn’t take long to decide. Jagger was found guilty of possessing the pills, fined £100, and sentenced to three months in jail. Richards was convicted of allowing hashish to be smoked in his home, fined £500, and hit with a one-year sentence. Fraser was found guilty of heroin possession, fined £200, and sentenced to six months.
Richards spent the night at Wormwood Scrubs, while Jagger and Fraser were sent to Brixton. But almost immediately, public opinion started to turn. The sentences felt wildly harsh for such flimsy charges. Protests broke out outside the courthouse, and The Who even released two Rolling Stones tracks to help keep the band’s name, and story, in the public eye.
Things began to unravel quickly. A doctor testified that he had prescribed the pills to Jagger, and Richards claimed the band had been set up by The News of the World. Jagger and Richards were soon released on bail. Then, on July 31, 1967, Lord Parker, the Lord Chief Justice at the London Appeal Court, dismissed the charges against Keith entirely and gave Mick a conditional discharge. Only Robert Fraser actually served jail time.
Norman Pilcher, meanwhile, became notorious for targeting celebrities throughout the 1960s. His arrest list included Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Donovan, George Harrison, and John Lennon. Eric Clapton narrowly escaped arrest at London’s Pheasantry club by slipping out the back door after Pilcher rang the bell pretending to be a postman with a special delivery.
Over time, several celebrities claimed Pilcher had framed them or was simply carrying out high-profile raids to feed the tabloids. According to alternative press reports and later histories, it was widely believed Pilcher routinely planted drugs on his targets, though this was never officially proven.
That is, until the 8th of November, 1972, when Pilcher himself was charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice over allegations of perjury. He resigned from the police force before the case went to court but was later convicted and sentenced to four years in prison. The judge didn’t mince words, telling him: You poisoned the wells of criminal justice, and set about it deliberately.
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A fittingly grim ending to one of rock’s most infamous busts.
