POLICE have said they will take a "twin track" approach to supporting drug addicts who have been victims of exploitation by gangs.

The plan for supporting addicts is the third and final phase of Operation Karine - which led to 25 arrests after a series of early morning drug raids this week.

Inspector Pete Sparrow said Salisbury had seen an increase in drug offences and violence, which he put down to cuckooing, which led Police to start gathering intelligence last November.

He said: "Cuckooing is the term we use for inter-county line drug networks, who come from big cities into rural areas and try and force their way onto vulnerable people.

They create a base where they can supply [drugs] without being in the focus or eyesight of the local police."

Insp Sparrow said the "consistent theme" when identifying victims of cuckooing was that they are vulnerable people, who may already have drug addictions or "social inability".

Drug dealers from metropolitan areas target the vulnerable users in rural areas, and offer to pay their rent, buy them cigarettes, alcohol and drugs, or threaten them with violence until they will join the drug supply chain.

Assistant Chief Constable Kier Pritchard said the perpetrators were "quite sophisticated" and posed a "critical risk" to the most vulnerable in our city.

He said: "They will exploit through violence, through intimidation, and generally through harm."

ACC Pritchard dubbed Operation Karine " a really successful operation" which he attributed to "detailed meticulous police work" and intelligence sharing with the Metropolitan Police and the Midlands Police units.

Insp Sparrow said, now arrests have been made, the focus must turn to the "long-term solution" of tackling drug use in the city.

Wiltshire Police has outlined plans for a "twin track" approach with local agencies such as Turning Point, GPs and doctors' surgeries and Wiltshire Council.

But Insp Sparrow said Salisbury would not be a "soft touch" when it came to drug offending, adding: "The message that I've been trying to put out is that we're trying to make Salisbury inhospitable.

"I don't want people to think that you can come here from a big city and do whatever you want without there being some action taken.

“Salisbury is a safe place in a safe county, with low crime rates, and we are in a good place, but there is this activity on the side and we want to make sure it doesn’t get a foothold to stay within the city.

"We’re hopeful that [Operation Karine] will disrupt it and create a gap in the drugs market to make the city dry.

"Going beyond that we need to keep the foot on the gas and make this remain an inhospitable place for further drug abuse."

ACC Pritchard said the problem was not specific to Salisbury or Wiltshire, but a national issue, adding: "There needs to be a twin track approach and the partnership element for me is what’s now going to take us to a position where we don’t create more risk in this city."

Click here to see videos and pictures from one of the raids under Operation Karine