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Banknotes in Shepway and throughout Britain are contaminated with cocaine, researchers have found.

And one in 20 notes also has traces of heroin and cannabis.

Scientists from Bristol University And Mass Spec Analytical Ltd found that the amount of drugs on £10 and £20 banknotes was the same wherever it was collected.

They analysed 50,000 notes from Folkestone and seven other areas, Oxford, Pontyclun, Cardiff, Troon, Grange-mouth, Dunfermline and Burnt Island.

The locations were chosen to cover urban and rural districts as well as known drugs trade areas.

Karl Ebejer, of Mass Spec Analytical Ltd, said: "The contamination on cash in general circulation is the same wherever you get it."

The findings are now being used to link money that has an unusually high drug contamination to drug crime.