A town on the front line of the battle against crack cocaine has been given a £2.4m boost by the government.

Middlesbrough is among 37 crack-blighted urban communities across the country to benefit from measures announced by the Home Office yesterday.

The town's police drugs unit and Drugs Action Team will get the bulk of the cash between now and 2007 to help set up better treatment programmes.

Middlesbrough police will also use some of the cash to increase overtime and employ extra officers to cut off the supply of the Class-A drug to the town's already drug-flooded streets. Organised crime, and Jamaican Yardies in particular, are suspected of opening up a new market for crack cocaine in Middlesbrough. From bases in London and Leeds they are thought to be 'testing the water' for a future market in Middlesbrough.

Police say drugs gangs can set up crack houses within a matter of hours and that the threat is moving steadily northwards up the country.

Superintendent Steve Ashman of Middlesbrough's drugs unit welcomed the town's share of a £500m national cash injection over the next three years.

He said: "We make no attempt to hide Middlesbrough's crack cocaine problem, but we are at the lower end of the scale compared to other cities in England. We have an emerging problem as opposed to an acute one.

"Because we have a street prostitution and heroin problem however, we need to nip it in the bud before it spreads."

Cocaine is a powerfully addictive drug and crack, sold in small 'rocks' is processed, usually from the dealer's kitchen, from cocaine hydrochloride for smoking.

Yesterday's announcement came days after a Jamaican-born man living in London, Raymond Simpson, was jailed for six years after being caught with crack cocaine in Middlesbrough.