POLICE will today begin a week of action to smash drug rings and remove dealers across the county.

Officers all over Hampshire will be involved in the dedicated initiative aimed at disrupting and dismantling the supply and use of illegal substances.

The five-day campaign is part of National Tackling Drugs Week, which has been set up and part-funded by the Home Office.

The crackdown comes just two days after the Daily Echo revealed that the police seized £10,000 of cannabis plants from an old people's home in Harefield, Southampton.

The campaign follows the introduction of the Government's ten-year national drugs strategy, introduced earlier this year, which aims to restrict supply and reduce demand for drugs.

In Southampton the focus will be on tackling the problem of Class A drugs and police will be increasing patrols in areas where it is known supply is prevalent.

Following the launch of the city's anti-knife campaign Operation Sharp, which is in partnership with the Daily Echo, officers will also be looking to seize weapons used in drug deals.

There will be similar scenes across Eastleigh, Winchester, New Forest, Fareham and Gosport, where police will be targeting communities known to have specific problems or received complaints from residents.

The clampdown comes following a series of high-profile raids across Hampshire including Operation Phoenix which saw three separate waves of pre-planned operations targeting drug suppliers.

In the most recent day of action in November last year, 800 officers took part and forced their way into 37 properties. More than 50 people were arrested and large quantities of goods recovered.

Safer neighbourhood teams across the county will play a major part in this week's crack down, which will come to an end on Friday.

Det Sgt Rob Cooper, from Southampton police, said: "Class A drugs have a detrimental effect on the whole community and police in Southampton work hard to disrupt the activities of those bringing drugs into the city.

"Tackling drug crime is a key priority for us and we remain focussed on disrupting drug-dealing and use in order to rid the city of the problem.

"We know that communities play a big part in helping us to tackle the problem of drugs, and I would encourage anyone who has any information about drug-dealing to contact us in confidence, and give us the information that we need to continue targeting those responsible and bring them to justice."