DRUG seizures have increased by three per cent in the past year – thanks to residents giving police information.

Home Office data reveals the increase, which involved 2,085 drug seizures in the year leading up to March.

Almost 75 per cent of the seizures were cannabis and 357 for cocaine.

ACC Phil Thompson said: “Information from local people has helped us target locations where people have been growing cannabis on a large scale in rented properties or industrial units. The police have also had some good successes on the motorway network, where officers have stopped cars carrying drugs that were on their way to be sold in other parts of the north west."

He said a lot of the police work is invisible as it involves plain clothes officers who work to gather enough evidence before it reaches court.

He said: “After the arrests we continue to work on the case – with specialist officers examining the assets of drug dealers so that we can ask the courts to confiscate money and property acquired through dealing.”