SIX people were arrested last night for theft, drink driving and drugs offences in a cross-border crackdown by police in Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire.

Operation Midas targeted thieves who use the cover of darkness to commit crime in rural areas on the county borders.

Operation Midas 3 was conducted overnight, led by the Southern Wiltshire Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) with assistance from Wiltshire’s rural crime team and specialist operations departments.

Fidty officers from the three forces worked together in the area between the south coast and Salisbury Plain, utilising automatic number plate recognition systems to conduct a series of stop checks on all arterial routes and patrol unclassified roads and farm tracks.

In addition to the main operation officers from Wiltshire also ran Operation Windwhistle, where they worked with farmers and game keepers from the Wylye and Chalke Valleys to identify suspicious people and vehicles.

As well as the arrests of six people for theft, drink driving and drugs offences, a number of penalty notices were issued for other matters.

Sergeant Dave Whitby from the Southern Wiltshire NPT said: ‘The operation was a great success.

“We know criminals don’t recognise county borders and with the three forces working together on this operation we have not only dealt with a number of offences but we have also shown our prolific offenders that they cannot predict when we will be out in force, looking for opportunities to arrest them regardless of which county they are in.

“I’d also like to thank members of the local rural community who gave up their time to assist us.’