POLICE were celebrating success yesterday in their latest joint effort to combat drug dealers and travelling criminals.

An operation, co-ordinated by the North Yorkshire force and stretching from the Scottish borders down to the Humber, resulted in scores of arrests.

Codenamed Operation Moleskin, the crime blitz also led to the confiscation of a substantial amount of drugs and cash.

As well as the North Yorkshire team, officers from the Cleveland, Durham, Northumbria, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Humberside forces were involved.

The operation netted 43 arrests, with £14,000 worth of drugs seized, including heroin and amphetamines, and £20,000 in cash.

Drug dealers and travelling criminals were the specific targets of the operation, which involved setting up checkpoints over two nights of key routes across the region and detectives said they gained a wealth of intelligence.

"Information about the plans, routes and movements of travelling criminals is our lifeblood," said North Yorkshire's Deputy Chief Constable, Roger Baker.

"A quarter of all crime in North Yorkshire is committed by people from outside the county, and we wage a relentless war against these travelling criminals."

Mr Baker said: "Our analysts are working right now on the wealth of information we have gained from Moleskin, and there will be more arrests to come."

Nine arrests were made in North Yorkshire including two men arrested for burglary and conspiracy to burgle, two alleged car thieves wanted in West Yorkshire, people on the wanted list, and an individual allegedly found with a substantial amount of heroin.

One of the biggest hauls was in Northumbria where a stop-check revealed four ounces of amphetamine in a car driven by a Middlesbrough man.

Mr Baker said: "The co-operation between forces has been excellent and bodes well for the similar operations which will follow.

"The region's many good roads provide criminals with the means to work on a regional basis and the police service is working against them on a similar basis.

"Force boundaries are a thing of the past when it comes to stamping out the travelling criminal."