Class A drugs turned up when checking parish women's garments (9)
I believe the answer is:
separates
'women's garments' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'class a drugs turned up when checking' is the wordplay.
'class' becomes 'rate' (I've seen this before).
'a drugs' becomes 'pes' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'turned up' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'when' becomes 'as'.
'checking' indicates putting letters inside (check can mean to control or arrest).
'pes' backwards is 'sep'.
'sep'+'as'='sepas'
'rate' going into 'sepas' is 'SEPARATES'.
'parish' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for separates that I've seen before include "women's garments" , "Splits up, sunders" , "Detaches from another" , "Breaks up" , "Sorts out" .)