A GANG behind the theft of railway track worth thousands of pounds has been smashed by police.

Officers from British Transport Police have arrested five men in a string of dawn raids in the Broughton area of Salford. It follows a series of thefts where men posing as contractors stole large amounts of track worth more than £50,000.

A stash of stolen track was discovered at a Salford scrap yard during the swoop. Officers also discovered a cannabis farm in one of the houses they targeted. Raids also took place in Lancashire and Cheshire.

The operation was part of a national police day of action to target metal thieves.

Det Insp Andrea Rainey, who led the operation, said: "This is a great result for us as we believe those responsible are part of an organised group that has been active throughout the region.

"The discovery at the scrap yard confirms our belief that the group is using yards to move on the metal and make money from their criminal activity.

"I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to all scrap dealers to be conscious of this issue and to be extremely cautious when dealing with anyone who brings rail track to their yards."

The day of action follows a steady increase in the number of metal and cable thefts in 2009. The price of metal fell sharply during the final few months of 2008, but has rallied this year.

Ms Rainey said: "Metal and cable theft is a major issue which costs the railway industry hundreds of thousands of pounds each year and causes countless passenger delays on the network.

"As a police force we are determined to take action against these criminals and operations such as the one carried out on Wednesday will continue.

"The actions of the thieves cause misery for thousands of people who are delayed or find their trains cancelled and we will continue to develop operations and other activities to deter and detect those intent on profiting from the theft of metal."