HOMES were raided across Folkestone in a major police operation to crack down on the town’s drug trade.

More than 150 officers took part in the raids, which resulted in 15 arrests from 20 warrants.

The operation began at 4am on Thursday and included swoops on addresses in Bradstone Road and New Street. There were simultaneous raids in Canterbury and London. The raids followed a similar operation in Dover on Wednesday.

Much of the intelligence came from Shepway’s new PCSOs (Police Community Support Officers) and the community at large.

Speaking after the raids, Area Commander Steve Harris said: "We served warrants across the Folkestone area and seized drugs and stolen property as a result.

"I would hope that this would have an impact on the supply of drugs in this area. These are significant dealers, many selling Class A drugs.

"Of those cases from Dover, 13 were remanded in custody by the courts, which gives you some indication that it is very serious."

As well as police officers, the raids saw the involvement of specialist search officers and dogs trained to look for drugs, plus a command centre at Folkestone police station.

To support the operation Kent Police worked with British Transport Police and drugs dogs were used at various locations on rail routes in and out of South Kent.

Ch Supt Harris added: "Where we see potential suppliers to Folkestone’s drugs trade we would be naive to to tackle them too.

"In some cases in the past, drugs networks have returned quite quickly but the operation that we have put in place behind the strike phase is to stop that happening. Working with our intelligence, Crimstoppers, and drug advisors should prevent the re-establishment of those drug networks.

"We have been putting PCSOs into the community to talk to members of the public. That has been a gap in our business before now and what these raids show is that has been a great deal of community intelligence out there. We have been able to pull together the various strands – it starts with community intelligene and we take it from there."

All information given to the police is treated in confidence and the charity Crimestoppers is also available for anonymous calls.

To find out how to contact your neighbourhood police team visit www.kent.police.uk

To report information about drug dealing and other crimes anonymously, call Kent Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Anyone who wants support to beat drug addiction can contact the Kent Council for Addiction on 01304 211999 or email: dover@kca.org.uk