Thieves have started using drug-spiked vapes to steal phones and access bank accounts.
Vapes laced with the dangerous drug spice have been offered to drunk revellers as a ploy to render them unconscious and take control of their phones.
In one instance on Good Friday this year, a man was offered a vape from two strangers after a night out in Clapham.
The pair asked to borrow the man’s mobile phone as they spoke to him, out of sight of fellow revellers queueing for food.
At 3am the man was found unconscious. The strangers had used the phone’s facial recognition to access his bank and transferred £7,000.
The victim was taken to the hospital, where doctors found the vape had been spiked with the synthetic cannabinoid spice.
Symptoms after taking the drug can include nausea, vomiting, seizures, or even cardiac arrest.
Police were called and are investigating the spiking but no arrests have been made.
Spiking incidents in London have risen by almost 10 per cent, but only one in 20 lead to a charge.
The Met received more than 2,700 reports of spiking between December 2024 and November 2025, with 125 per cent more charges brought compared to the year before.
Should harsher punishments be introduced for criminals who use drug-spiked vapes to rob people?
Spiking disproportionately affects women and girls, with around 66 per cent of victims being female.
Offenders are most active in and around busy nightlife venues, with 17 per cent of reports linked to Westminster and the West End.
Detective Superintendent Daniel Thompson, the lead officer on spiking for the Metropolitan Police, told a national newspaper: ‘We know it can cause humiliation and embarrassment, and we want to encourage men and boys to feel confident to come forward if this happens to them.
‘The half-life of drugs in the body is 12 hours so the sooner a spiking offence is reported, the more likely we are to obtain a urine sample and provide reassurance and certainty about what has happened.’
Almost one million people nationwide reported being a victim of spiking last year but only 23 per cent reported it to police, according to a study by Drinkaware and Anglia Ruskin University.
Last year, police launched a crackdown on vape-spiking after children as young as 14 were rushed to hospital.
The Met unveiled new detection equipment, which allows for rapid testing for devices containing THC or spice.
Met officers have expressed growing concern over reports of vapes being tampered with and shared or handed out in social settings.
In south east London in 2024, five pupils from a school in Eltham fell sick with symptoms including vomiting and confusion after using a spice-laced vape.
Emergency services attended the scene and one of the children was put in an induced coma – but was later revived and recovered.
In July last year the ‘zombie drug’ spice was also found across secondary schools in Wiltshire prompting police to issue a stark warning to parents.
A shocking study last year found one in six vapes confiscated from school children in England was laced with the substance.
Police are using a range of mobile drug-testing equipment that assists rapid drug identification – including near infra-red detectors that can test powders and tablets suspected of containing controlled drugs, supported by a mobile phone app.
