Police have seized drugs worth in the region of £183,000 and made 117 arrests in a crackdown on gangs from outside the county targeting communities in north Essex.

Operation Saturn was launched in May last year to tackle gang-related violence in the North Local Policing Area, which covers Braintree, Uttlesford, Colchester, Tendring, Chelmsford and Maldon districts.

Criminals from London were known to be dealing drugs, targeting vulnerable people and be involved in violence such as street robbery.

Intelligence also indicated that they were believed to be making than £4,000 a day from selling drugs in each major town in the North Local Policing Area.

The dedicated Op Saturn team has been working closely with partner agencies to make a major dent in the activities of these gangs.

Over the past 12 months, police have executed 61 warrants – 29 in Clacton, 14 in Colchester, 13 in Chelmsford and Maldon, and five in Braintree.

They arrested 117 people – 57 in Clacton, 33 in Colchester, 18 in Chelmsford and Maldon, and nine in Braintree.

Of those, 70 were charged, seven received cautions, eight received cannabis warnings, eight are currently on bail and seven were dealt with by other departments.

Sentences handed out at court included jail terms of up to five years.

Drugs seized included crack cocaine, heroin, cannabis, amphetamines and mephedrone.

The combined street value was in the region of £183,265.

Around £13,500 in cash has also been confiscated and a crackhouse in Beach Road, Clacton, was shut down last July.

Criminals have also been known to target vulnerable people and use them to supply drugs.

Police and their partners have looked to help support those vulnerable individuals, particularly as they may have mental health, drug and alcohol issues, to divert them away from a life of crime.

Detective Chief Inspector John Ross said: "We are determined to work with our communities to keep them safe from this unwelcome criminality.

"The success of Op Saturn over the last year has demonstrated our commitment to targeting criminal gangs by acting on information from the public.

"This relationship is vital to our success in this task and I urge anyone with information about this to contact the police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

"Essex continues to be a very safe place to live and we want to make it clear that gangs are not welcome here.”