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Acting on tip-offs, officers raided addresses in Heights Close and Farrow Green in Armley, and Fernbank Avenue, Bramley,.

Police vans and cars swept into Heights Close shortly after midday and officers dressed in body armour and armed with search warrants issued under the Misuse of Drugs Act leapt out and battered their way through the door of a semi-detached house.

Simultaneous raids were mounted at an address in Farrow Green, Armley, and later at Fernbank Avenue, Bramley.

Earlier Chief Constable Sir Norman Bettison had listened to Insp Tom Horner of the Pudsey Neighbourhood Policing Team, who had set-up the secret operation, brief the raiding party at Pudsey Police Station.

Insp Horner said that the operation was sparked by information from within the community and would be targeting drug dealers, and those believed to be living above their means by crime.

Sir Norman told the assembled teams: "Last year there were more arrests for drug dealing and supply of drugs than ever before in recent history. However,the public don't often see that. They see drug dealing on the streets or at the back door of a house and wonder why the police don't come round.

"It is no good us making the strike at 6am, making arrests and no-one knowing about it. Hence the opportunity to make a big splash, not just with the offenders but also for the people living nearby."

Later, outside one of the homes targeted, Sir Norman told the YEP: "People give us information, they tell us who is drug dealing. But what they don't always see is the results of that information.

"The result is that we will come around when someone is in, we will seek entry, if we don't get it we will smash our way in and deal with the people dealing drugs.

"What is particularly interesting is to show people what we do with the information they give us," said the Chief Constable.

"It can be shocking when officers turn-up ready to face whatever they may find inside the address even including such things as a rottweiler. The officers do not know what they are going to find and they take their lives in their own hands. They do an extremely good job and I am very proud of them," said Sir Norman.

Officers had been round to tell neighbours what the police were doing and most said that they had expected police to arrive one day, he added.

A 45-year-old local man was arrested on suspicion of possession of a Class A drug and a quantity of suspected illegal drugs were seized by police.