Home Secretary David Blunkett gave his personal backing to Sussex's war on drugs on a visit to Haywards Heath police station.

Mr Blunkett paid tribute yesterday to officers working on the front line in the ongoing campaign to rid the streets of crack-cocaine and heroin.

He praised the string of recent operations which have been mounted to stem the tide of drugs into the county.

But he warned more must be done to prevent the dealers moving elsewhere in the county, shifting the problems away to the coast.

Mr Blunkett said: "We have got several levels for dealing with drugs. One is the force level and they have done a really good job in cracking it.

"The class A drugs are a real challenge and displacing those who handle drugs here means there is still a problem for Brighton and Hove.

"The initiative seems to have broken the immediate availability of crack in particular, users have been saying so to the police and I think that is a good thing.

"The second thing is what we call the intermediate stage, involving the organisers and not just the pushers on the street.

"We have got new initiatives taking place because there has been a gap between local forces and the national picture.

"The big challenge now is to fill that gap between what the forces are doing and breaking the trafficking routes. It is one of the biggest problems, not only does it bring misery but it also impacts on other crime."

Mr Blunkett was greeted by Chief Constable Ken Jones, Superintendent Mark Streater and Superintendent John Dransfield before enjoying a short lunch and chatting to officers about the reorganisation of Sussex Police Dawn raids, which took place in June in Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill led to eight people being charged with drugs offences, including possession with intent to supply class A drugs.

In raids in Horsham and Crawley at the beginning of July police seized a fist-sized bag of heroin, which was buried in the back garden of one of the nine addresses they targeted.

Five people have since been charged and appeared in court.

The raids were part of a force-wide initiative to clamp down on drug dealers and stem the flow of crack cocaine in particular into Sussex from London.

Senior officers took the opportunity to ask Mr Blunkett to pledge more money for their fight against class A drugs.

Superintendent Mark Streater said: "The visit was really to give him an idea of the problems with drugs here in Mid Sussex and the operations to disrupt the supply of crack-cocaine and heroin.

"One thing we did highlight is, as with many operations in Sussex, these operations are protracted and we require money to do them.

"A lot of the money has come from the Home Office but we need more.

"Mr Blunkett recognised recognised the real concerns over the spread of class A drugs dealing and welcomed the fact police had been proactive in preventing the dealers from becoming more entrenched.

"Anyone thinking of filling the gap the dealers have left can rest assured we have not taken our foot off the accelerator and more raids are expected in the future."

Mr Streater said Sussex Police realised if drug dealers were left to take hold they became "exceptionally difficult to shift", which was why tackling the problem before it grew too big was one of their main objectives for the next six months.