POLICE have thanked the public for helping them put a significant dent in the Middlesbrough drug market a year after the high-profile Dealer A Day campaign was launched.

During the past 12 months, 500 dealers' houses have been raided and drugs worth £150,000 have been seized, along with £80,000 in cash made from supplying crack cocaine, heroin, Ecstasy, amphetamines and cannabis.

Some 400 people have been arrested including children as young as 12, who are lured into selling illegal substances for adult dealers.

The campaign was the brainchild of Acting Detective Superintendent Adrian Roberts, who said it was essential that the public continued to call them with information.

"Drugs are blighting communities and wrecking lives throughout the area," he said.

"People's desire to resist drugs has been measured by their willingness to tell us who the dealers are, and we have had a massive surge in the number of people coming forward.

"In future we want even more people to call us with information and we want to assure them that they will see some exciting new developments."

Jail sentences totalling 25 years, as well as 90 years-worth of community-based penalties, have been handed out by the courts.

Fifty-seven people are still waiting to have their cases heard.

On the first day of the campaign, December 3 last year, 26 drug dealers were picked - one to represent the 26 wards in Middlesbrough.

Acting Det Supt Roberts said drug dealing was not confined to one part of Middlesbrough, although there were hotspots in the town.

He added: "We said that we wanted to tackle drug dealing every day of the year - and that includes Christmas Day - and we have more than achieved that.

"This has been a really, really successful initiative and I would like to thank the public for all of their help."

Superintendent Steve Ashman, who is now co-ordinating the campaign, said people should not assume the police knew who the dealers were.

"This is all about making life as uncomfortable as possible for people who are making money from selling drugs," he said.

"You tell us where the dealing is going on and we will carry enforcement action against the dealer."