Sussex's war on hard drugs has been given a £1.25m cash boost to help break the link between hard drugs and crime.

Brighton and Hove is to get more than anywhere else in the South East - a £239,200 targeted at ridding communities of dealers.

Announcing the package, the Home Office revealed the city had among the highest rates of domestic burglaries, robberies and car thefts in the region.

The money from the Communities Against Drugs (Cad) programme will be used to promote a three-pronged strategy targeting known dealers, disrupting the stolen goods market and helping users break their habit.

It comes as the second part of a three-year programme, which will involve £220 million being invested across the UK.

Sussex Chief Constable Ken Jones has made fighting the menace of drugs, particularly the growing epidemic of cocaine and heroin, one of the main priorities for the force.

Police have pledged to pursue crack cocaine dealers relentlessly until none of the drug is being traded in the city centre.

Police chiefs have promised to continue the wave of recent seizures and make Brighton and Hove a no-go area for dealers from outside the city.

And anybody who swallows rocks of crack cocaine to avoid arrest will be held until the drugs have been passed and can be used as evidence.

Chief Inspector Stuart Harrison, in charge of city centre policing, said: "The staff under my command are absolutely committed to tackling the drug trade and our ambition is to reduce it to nil."

City centre police have arrested 45 people for possessing crack cocaine with intent to supply in parks and other public spaces since the start of the crackdown in April.

Another 20 warrants have been served at homes of suspected dealers. The arrests and raids have netted controlled drugs with a street value of more than £1 million and four firearms.

Mr Harrison said the crackdown was backed by an intelligence gathering operation that involved Brighton and Hove City Council, traders' associations and transport operators.

In one recent case, a dealer was held until he passed 50 rocks of crack cocaine, worth about £500, he had swallowed.

Home Office minister John Denham said there was a clear link between hard drugs and street crime as he unveiled the initiative.

He said: "Tackling them both is key to ending the cycle of drug dependency and criminal activity that ruins lives and wrecks communities.

"By helping the police and residents strengthen their communities, we are determined to break links between drugs and crime and make our streets safer.

"It is essential to get funding straight into areas most affected by drug-related crime.

"Whether it is CCTV, warden schemes, work with drug-using offenders, or direct police intervention against suppliers, we want them to have the tools they need to take action."

The grants are:

Adur (£60,700), Arun (£113,100), Chichester (£87,900), Crawley (£88,100), Eastbourne (£91,300), Hastings (£132,100), Horsham (£81,900), Lewes (£75,000), Mid Sussex(£88,700), Wealden (£98,500) and Worthing (£91,500).