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An entrepreneur with close links to Peter Mandelson today reveals how Class A drugs worth more than £50,000 used to be sold in his London nightclub each weekend.

Writing exclusively in The Mail on Sunday’s Review section, James Palumbo says that after opening the Ministry of Sound in 1991, he routinely went to work there wearing a bulletproof jacket, and carrying spray gas and a stun gun to defend himself from gun-toting dealers.

Palumbo, a 46-year-old multi-millionaire and the Old Etonian son of property tycoon Lord Palumbo, recounts several close shaves with gangsters, who for a time seized control of the club.

He writes: ‘At the height of its popularity, Ecstasy sold for £15 a pop and some clubbers took two, three or even four pills in one session.

‘The drug profits were astronomical – I estimated they totalled more than £50,000 a weekend. I was trying to run a legitimate business in an atmosphere of lawlessness and intimidation.’ He salvaged the club after tackling the dealers head-on with the help of the police. He later boasted it was the ‘only drug-free club in Britain’.

Palumbo retains a majority stake in the business, which has clubs in London, Egypt and Malaysia and was named Britain’s 406th wealthiest person with a £130million fortune.

In 1996, he gave his friend Lord Mandelson the use of a chauffeur-driven car for the following year’s General Election campaign. 

"Bouncers turned my club into the Ministry of DRUGS... until I risked my life to drive them out..."

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