A MAJOR crackdown on drugs in the New Forest early on this morning resulted in 16 arrests.

Hampshire Police carried out dawn raids at 16 homes, including one in Burley, to try to root out heroin and crack cocaine dealers in what was the largest ever such operation to be carried out in the New Forest.

The intelligence-led Operation Mercury took nine months to put together and involved 250 police officers from across the New Forest.

The raids uncovered amounts of class A and class B drugs.

* For an in-depth report see the July 1 edition of the Forest Journal.