Police raided homes of suspected drug dealers in Chippenham, in the latest crackdown on gang crime in the town.

Officers stormed several properties in various locations around the town on Thursday afternoon.

Houses in Calne and Melk-sham were also raided and officers used numberplate recog- nition technology to corner dealers on roads around Chipp-enham.

The passive drugs dog team also attended Chippenham railway station to carry out spot checks on rail users.

A total of five arrests were made, four from the executed warrants and one from the train station searches.

Two cannabis factories were located as well as hoards of class A and B drugs. Mobile phones were also seized.

Addresses were also raided in Swindon on Friday, with two arrests made and drugs, cash and an imitation firearm seized.

The raids formed part of Operation Atlantic, a county-wide crackdown on the city gangs who have infiltrated rural Wiltshire towns to deal drugs.

Detective Inspector Mike Rees said: “Gangs are coming from outside of the county and trying to deal heroin and crack and cause mayhem in our towns.

“If we do not get a grip of it, it is only going to get worse.

“A lot of (the targets of the operation) are gang members and the last thing we want is for them to establish themselves in the county’s towns.”

This was the second time raids had been carried out under Operation Atlantic.

Last month more than 150 officers hit addresses in Calne, Trowbridge, Chippenham, Melksham and Swindon, targeting the Blood Gang, a group of class A dealers from Bristol.

DI Rees said those hits had had a big impact on the gang’s hold in Wiltshire.

He said: “As a result of the last day of action and subsequent arrest of one of their main players, I think they have given up for the time being.

“That is certainly what the intelligence is saying. It shows getting in their faces does work.

“From the Chippenham side, the operation was successful. The Swindon side was less successful than we had hoped.

“We had a couple of very good hits in Chippenham with cannabis factories found and five arrests in total.

“We also identified some children at risk, who have since been referred to social services.

“We had a drug intervention worker on hand in the cells and a couple of the drug users we arrested have sought help.

“Overall the operation was successful. The network of people we were targeting are now well aware we are on to them.”