THREE hundred plastic bags used for storing drugs were recovered from a house in Newhey during the last in a series of successful drugs raids across Rochdale.

Police seized the unused snap bags - small plastic bags with snap tops - from the terraced property along with two sets of weighing scales.

At the same time officers recovered £10 worth of cannabis from another terraced home in Newhey.

Police battered down the doors of the properties last Friday night.

The two raids involving 14 officers brought Operation Alligator, part of National Tackling Drugs Week, to a close.

The operation has seen more than £300 worth of drugs seized and destroyed by police in Rochdale and £700 worth of property recovered, resulting in six arrests for possession of Class A drugs, cultivation and possession of cannabis and possession of amphetamines.

Police raided homes in Brotherod, Turf Hill, Oakenrod, Newbold, Littleborough and Spotland.

They recovered high-tech cannabis farm equipment worth £10,000 from a shed in Spotland.

Twenty warrants were gained across the Rochdale division which covers Heywood and Middleton - the highest number across the Greater Manchester initiative - leading to 15 arrests.

Another arrest is expected to be made this week in connection with the raids in Newhey.

Det Sgt Jared Sudworth, who led the operation for the Rochdale division, said Operation Alligator had been a success. He warned that raids, to disrupt the supply of drugs and to convict drug dealers, would continue in Rochdale with help from intelligence provided by the community.

He said: "We want to send the message out that if you supply drugs we will do something about it."