A CRIME-FIGHTING campaign to crack down on the activities of drug dealers in Darlington has helped police seize £20,000 of drugs, it was revealed last night.

Four arrests were made as a direct result of the campaign and heroin and amphetamines, with a street value of £20,000, were unearthed.

The £7,000 Rat on a Rat project, which encouraged residents to inform police about drug dealers, ran for a month earlier this year and was supported by The Northern Echo.

Police used posters on buses and around the town, beer mats in pubs and a website to get the Rat on a Rat message across.

At the same time they ran an advertising campaign with businesses in the town.

And for the first time, the public were also able to inform police about criminals anonymously over the Internet on a specially created website.

The police have just released a report into the project which concludes it was a resounding success.

During the campaign, officers received dozens of calls from the public handing over information about suspected drug dealers.

The new report reveals that the majority of the calls were of some direct use to the police fighting the war against drugs in the town.

Sergeant Paul Robinson, of Darlington police, said: "We linked the intelligence with some information we already had and in a couple of cases the information from the public was the missing piece in the jigsaw.

"The Internet site has also been quite successful because people have the confidence to e-mail us because it is anonymous.

"There isn't a huge drugs problem in Darlington, but we can trace most crime in the town back to drug use."

Sgt Robinson said: "We wanted to restore confidence in residents and help to cut down on drug-related crime."

The Rat on a Rat initiative was pioneered by the Metropolitan Police and was run last summer in Chester-le-Street, County Durham leading to raids on the homes of suspected dealers.

The website, www.nettherat.org, is still up and running for the public to send anonymous tip-offs or pass information about any crimes to police.

Read more about the anti drugs campaign here.