Police swooped on a number of men believed to be supplying class A drugs during a series of dawn raids in Chester on Wednesday morning.

Four people were given early morning wake-up calls as up to 50 officers from Chester Local Policing Unit executed warrants at a number of properties.

Officers targeted five addresses in Blacon and arrested four men aged between 27 and 55 on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs (heroin and crack cocaine). All are currently in custody helping police with their enquiries.

Detective Sergeant, Nick Henderson, who is in charge of the operation, said: “The action taken today comes as a result of an investigation focusing on a group of people suspected of being involved in illegal drugs.

“The strike phase this morning is the result of months of hard work to gather evidence and intelligence. During the raids we seized heroin and a quantity of cash.

“The action taken by officers reinforces our commitment to proactively target, disrupt and dismantle those suspected of being involved in organised crime.”

Specialist officers were used to gain entry to the properties and officers are now carrying out detailed searches of all the addresses.

DS Henderson added: “Information from the public is absolutely vital in the fight against drug related activity and I encourage anyone who has any information about organised crime or drug related crime in their community to come forward.”