IT seemed just like any other day in Devizes last Thursday.

As daylight broke traders were setting up their stalls for the weekly town centre market while postmen cycled on their rounds.

Yet snaking through the town was a convoy of 20 police vehicles containing more than 60 police officers.

At 7am the peace was shattered for some when police officers battered down the front doors of suspected drug dealers.

One of the homes raided was a terraced house off Bridewell Street, where it was quickly established that the person police were seeking was out. He was arrested later.

In Waiblingen Way six flats were raided. Curious residents watched from behind their curtains as police vans and cars moved into the long winding road.

Some residents were up and about. A mother and small child went to buy a newspaper and congratulated the police on their actions, while another resident complained that the police activity had woken her children up.

One flat in Waiblingen Way had four locks on the door. On a wall in a communal hallway to another of the flats was a written message threatening one of the men who was arrested in the raids.

Inside one flat the police were searching, the cries of a distressed child could be heard.

As well as drugs, suspected stolen property was seized, including watches believed to be stolen from the Devizes-based Wiltshire Blind Association the previous weekend.

Detective Inspector Chris Drake, who led the Devizes operation, later told the Gazette that he had spent a restless night before the dawn raids in anticipation of the crackdown.

He said: "I couldn't sleep much because I was thinking about the operation and what would be happening. For us, and me in particular, we have lived and breathed the investigation for more than six months.

"The day of the execution of the warrants was the payback where we got the chance to do something."

DC Mandy Carver led one of the teams of up to six officers that executed warrants at flats in Waiblingen Way.

In the flat her team raided they found a man and a woman in a bedroom, one man wandering around and one man hiding behind the sofa. None of them put up any resistance.

One man was arrested on suspicion of being connected with the supply of a Class A drug.

A number of addresses contained children and DC Carver said it was distressing for officers to come across youngsters while carrying out raids.

She said: "It's a frightening experience for children when policemen come crashing through the door.

"It's not a nice aspect of the job to see and hear children crying. We do everything we can while we are in a property to keep the police action away from the youngsters where possible.

"We don't knock and wait for the occupant to answer because they could be disposing of evidence."

DC Carver said it is satisfying for police officers that the operation had been carried out.

"It sends out the message that we are very serious about our fight against drugs," she said.

"It's good for the residents because hopefully we will get less of these opportunistic burglaries and thefts that have been prolific purely to feed people's drugs habits."

Another raid was carried out in Potterne, one in Mayenne Place and one in Byron Road, Devizes.

In total 15 people were arrested, 11 in connection with drugs offences and four on suspicion of theft.