POLICE found themselves coming under fire for failing to act on the drugs scourge when all the time they were secretly planning Thursday's blitz on dealers.

Detective Inspector Chris Drake, who led Operation Ardent in Devizes, was one of those officers who faced the flak. In June he was given a grilling by concerned families who went along to a consultative police meeting held at Devizes Town Hall.

Residents of Waiblingen Way, Devizes, told him in no uncertain terms that their lives were being made a misery by drug addicts living in their street.

The people were demanding to know what the police were going to do.

But DI Drake could not tell them that officers were planning the blitz that would see raids on six homes in the street.

He said: "When I was getting berated at the meeting from the concerned residents I had to be careful what I said. I was trying to reassure them that we were dealing with the problem but I could not let them know that there were things in hand as it could have jeopardised the operation."

Police received regular complaints about drug abuse and discarded needles in Devizes, particularly in Waiblingen Way.

At the same time there was a rise in break-ins at houses, garages and sheds, which police believed were carried out by addicts seeking to fuel their habit.

DI Drake said the information received from residents had been crucial.

He said: "When we use their information together with other information we receive it solves the jigsaw.

"Without the support of that community we wouldn't know what was going on.

"We need a starting point. They know who's causing the problems because they live there and they see it all the time, we don't."