TORMENTED residents in a drug-blighted town are today being urged to Rat on a Rat - to drive out drug dealers.

The Northern Echo has teamed up with police in Chester-le-Street to encourage local people to expose dealers who are destroying the lives of those hooked on drugs.

If successful, police plan to extend the scheme to the rest of County Durham.

The campaign urges residents to call the Crimestoppers number - 0800 555111 - to inform police of dealers in their community.

Thousands of Rat on a Rat leaflets and posters are being distributed. The Crimestoppers number is also printed on 10,000 beer mats supplied to Chester-le-Street pubs.

Inspired by similar successful schemes in Derbyshire and London, police in Chester-le-Street felt it was time to step up their efforts after a number of heroin deaths and a string of drugs-related offences in recent years.

Only last weekend, a 22-year-old man in nearby Sacriston died from a suspected heroin overdose. And last week officers seized the county's biggest ever haul of Ecstasy in Durham, recovering 9,000 tablets.

Researchers say more than half of North-East children have tried drugs by the age of 14.

The shocking findings were further highlighted by the deaths of Stacey Laight, 15, of Peterlee, and Catherine Longstaff, also 15, of Bishop Auckland. Stacey died after taking a drugs cocktail, including Ecstacy, while Catherine's death is thought to be heroin-related.

Durham Agency Against Crime and The Northern Echo are both backing the Rat on a Rat campaign. Detective Inspector Andy Reddick said: "These people are dealing out misery. We want them to feel some misery themselves. Local people can do an awful lot to let us know who the dealers are."

Victims of the rats - Page 5