AN operation to stamp out the crack cocaine trade in Medway has slashed street crime and burglaries in the area.

Kent Police has won a major award from the Home Office for Operation Terminate, which led to 62 people being jailed for a total of more than 200 years.

As officers prepared to collect the award today, they revealed that street robberies in Medway had gone down by 50 per cent, burglaries by 41.5 per cent and vehicle theft by 18.3 per cent since the operation started last year.

Terminate was Kent's biggest covert operation aimed at drug dealers.

Det Supt Andy Gent said: "Our aims were to put drug dealers behind bars and ensure that no one else moved in to take advantage of the gap in the market.

"These aims became reality and that is a tribute to all those involved.

"We liaised with other organisations, including the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) to enable us to get our strategy right first time.

"We collected overwhelming evidence on all the offenders concerned, which in turn resulted in 60 of them pleading guilty to the charges, thus averting costly trials.

"The other two offenders were found guilty of the charges against them."

He added: We're extremely