A mother and her 16-year-old daughter have been arrested on suspicion of running a drugs shop from their home.

Detectives believe they are the latest example of a rise in drug businesses dubbed "Fagin" operations - in which parents take telephone orders and then get their children to act as mules, taking the drugs to customers waiting in cars outside.

Police say are investigating a number of Fagin operations in Brighton and Hove.

Officers yesterday raided the mother and daughter's address in East Brighton and seized bags of what is believed to be amphetamines and cannabis worth several hundred pounds. Suspected stolen goods including laptop computers, televisions, video recorders, DVDs and bank and store cards, were also recovered.

The police operation was the result of weeks of surveillance and intelligence gathering.

Police said customers were telephoning their orders to the house and then pulling up outside in their cars at pre-arranged times.

Pushers would run from the house and put bags of drugs through the car windows.

In exchange, they would receive cash or valuables stolen in burglaries and car break-ins and from handbag and purse thefts.

The 16-year-old and her mother, in her forties, were taken to the police custody centre in Hollingbury.

They were expected to be released on bail pending analysis of the white powder seized.

Inspector Steve Curry said the intelligence gathering showed how burglaries and thefts were linked to the drugs trade.

He said other similar "shops" were being looked at where young teenagers were acting as lookouts and "runners" to deliver drugs to customers.