ALMOST £150,000 worth of drugs have been seized in 87 raids in the last year by neighbourhood police officers covering the central city patch.

The drugs crackdown has netted all manner of illegal substances, including heroin, cocaine, cannabis, amphetamine, MDMA and methadone, as well as £10,000 of cash seized from dealers.

The small team of officers and PCSOs who cover Efford, Mount Gould, East End, Lipson, Laira, Mutley and Greenbank carried out 87 Misuse of Drugs Act warrants during 2009 and have vowed to keep the pressure up on dealers.

Sgt Mike Giarchi-Faulkner, neighbourhood team leader, said the results were "astounding", particularly considering the team numbered no more than 20 officers and PCSOs.

He said 68 of the warrants carried out were positive and, in addition to the drugs seized, officers had also tackled a number of anti-social yobs who have terrorised the area.

He said: "We've issued eight Acceptable Behaviour Contracts, had three ASBOs issued by the courts and worked with housing partners to evict people from seven problem addresses."

In addition, he said the neighbourhood team launched the Break Project to encourage youths into breakdancing classes, two football schemes and a martial arts group which between them have given hundreds of youngsters something to do in the evenings rather than hang around or get into trouble.

Sgt Giarchi-Faulkner said: "The test of this was we had no anti-social behaviour related incidents reported anywhere on our patch on Halloween and only two incidents reported on Bonfire Night.

"In addition to our normal work, our officers have also been very active on large issues such as the Little Ted's nursery investigation, the student G20 summit investigation, as well as assisting in warrants related to brothels and cannabis factories."

During 2009 officers in Efford finalised a long-running eviction order in Thames Gardens and held numerous restorative justice meetings to resolve neighbour disputes. Over in Mount Gould, Pc Paula Tucker and her team of PCSOs sniffed out just over £50,000 worth of drugs, including heroin, cocaine, cannabis, amphetamine, MDMA and methadone.

The East End patch saw a further £40,000 worth of drugs seized, four evictions due to anti-social behaviour and drugs, and ran a 'tombstoning' awareness event at local schools.

Lipson and Laira officers ran after-school programmes that kept more than 100 children busy every week, as well as seizing all manner of drugs during warrants.

Mutley and Greenbank officers were praised at a national level for the work done during a breakdancing initiative.

PCSO Pablo Beckhurst won the Arts and Culture category of the Children and Young People Now Awards, beating 500 other nominees from across the UK.

His street dancing programme resulted in a significant drop in incidents of anti-social behaviour.

In addition, officers linked up with the University, installing Airwave radios with college security staff, sharing CCTV and working alongside the Student Union to tackle loutish behaviour.

Sgt Giarchi-Faulkner said: "It's important to recognise that almost all our intelligence comes from the community, and we respond to their information.

"All information supplied is important to us in building that bigger picture, and gives us the information we need to give to the magistrates when we request a warrant.

"We'll be building on this over the next year, and are keen to ensure that those committing offences, whether it is anti-social behaviour, petty crime or drug supply will be challenged and dealt with through the criminal justice system.

"It is clear that both the Pcs and the PCSOs respond to the needs of the community and do it in an effort to make those neighbourhoods nicer places to live."