POLICE carried out two simultaneous raids at homes in the same Canvey street to search for drugs.

Officers from Canvey’s community policing team and the operational support group executed the warrants in St Marks Road after tip-offs about cannabis in the houses.

In both of the homes, police found small amounts of the class B drug.

Officers issued a 30-year-old woman from one home and a 28-year-old man from the other address with cannabis warnings.

Insp Fergus Caulfield, from the community policing team, said: “We executed two warrants on Thursday, July

“We continuously look to develop intelligence whether that comes from police officers, the community or Crimestoppers.

“We will always act on it where appropriate.

“On these occasions we only found small amounts of cannabis but we want to send out the message that it is one of our focuses on Canvey and we will continue to be robust about drug use and drug dealing.

“I think drug dealing is an issue in most locations but when it comes to violence and other issues that impact further on the community, we need to really tackle that.

“Following on from the shooting we had last summer, we are continuing our focus on organised crime gangs.”

Earlier this month, police launched a strategy to disrupt organised crime gangs using Canvey to deal drugs and use violence.

Under codename Operation Busby, officers from the community policing team will be visiting homes of known offenders and carrying out high-visibility patrols to disrupt criminal activity.

Operation Raptor teams have also been set up in the North, South and West local policing areas to detect and disrupt gangs who travel to Essex to deal drugs and cause violence.

Anybody who has any information and or concerns about drug dealing or gang-related crime is asked to call Essex Police on 101 or independent crime-fighting charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

Alternatively visit www.crimestoppers-uk.org to complete an anonymous online form.