DRUGS police swooped on Northallerton yesterday morning, raiding five houses and arresting eight people.

Sixty officers dressed in riot gear and stab vests surrounded the houses at 8am before breaking down the doors and storming inside.

Five men and three women were arrested from addresses in Northallerton and Brompton on suspicion of supplying heroin and were taken to Northallerton Police Station for questioning.

Following the arrests, specialist teams carried out painstaking searches of each house accompanied by financial and benefit fraud investigators.

The raids, code named Operation Malt, were part of Operation Delivery, the ongoing crackdown on crime which was launched in September.

Detectives have been gathering evidence on heroin suppliers in Northallerton since early September, and say they have concentrated on a small number of individuals.

Detective Inspector Dai Malyn heads Operation Malt. He said: "There is a hardcore number of people responsible in this network and we are determined to arrest those responsible.

"We want to put all the hard work and efforts over the last few weeks to good use to demonstrate to the public that we are tackling those supplying class A drugs.

"It sends a very clear message to those who sell drugs in North Yorkshire and I believe that message has been received loud and clear. We don't want drug dealers in Northallerton and neither does anyone else."

Part of the funding for the raids came from the Hambleton Communities Against Drugs initiative, which is a three-year funding stream from the Government designed to tackle drug crime.

Trish Thornton, communities against drugs officer, said: "Hambleton does not have a big problem in comparison to places like Cleveland or West Yorkshire but the community expects something to be done about the drugs situation.

"On behalf of the partnership I would like to thank the police officers for all their hard work.

"I would also like to reassure members of the public that we will continue to work with in partnership with law enforcement agencies in eliminating drugs throughout Hambleton."