A FORCE-WIDE crackdown on crime launched across County Durham and Darlington in the run-up to Christmas has been hailed as successful by police.

Durham Constabulary's head of CID, Detective Superintendent Ian Scott, revealed last night that 271 men and women had been arrested under the high-profile Operation Bullseye.

In Darlington and Derwentside, 54 arrests were made; in Chester-le-Street and Durham 48; in Wear and Tees 69; in Easington 32; in Sedgefield 14; and 54 were made by the Operations Division. A further 20 people had been reported for alleged involvement in minor crimes.

Hundreds of beat officers, traffic police and detectives played key roles in the 18-day operation. Their main target was house burglars, drug dealers, thieves, and thugs involved in town centre violence.

Various initiatives, launched by each of the force's divisions resulted in the recovery of almost £57,000 in property, mainly from the search of more than 160 premises.

Det Supt Scott said: "Valuable information on individual criminals and their patterns of behaviour was collected ahead of the start of Bullseye.

"That was followed up with the combined hard work of a great many people whose efforts made the operation the outstanding success we were convinced it would be."