Somehow gets by police to smuggle in drug (5)
I believe the answer is:
copes
'somehow gets' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'police to smuggle in drug' is the wordplay.
'police' becomes 'cops' (I've seen this before).
'to smuggle' means one lot of letters goes inside another (smuggle can mean to secretly carry).
'in drug' becomes 'e' (E is another name for ecstasy. I am not sure about the 'in' bit.).
'cops' going around 'e' is 'COPES'.
'by' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for copes that I've seen before include "Manages successfully, gets by" , "Somehow manages" , "'Manages, gets by (5)'" , "Manages; church vestments" .)