POLICE swooped on two homes on an Oxford estate in a bid to catch drug dealers.

The simultaneous raids took place at about 8.15pm in Underhill Circus and Sturges Close in Barton on Saturday.

No drugs were found at either address and no arrests were made.

Sgt Jim Holmes, who led the operation, said: “At the address in Underhill Circus we found scales and bags and drug paraphernalia. At the other place we found a crack pipe, needles and intravenous drug-taking equipment.”

The raids followed an appeal for information about dealers on the estate in September.

Sgt Holmes said: “We asked, they said, we did.These are the sixth and seventh raids since I came here in July and no one on the estate has received any intimidation. We want to get the message across that if you tell us about these places you will be safe.

“We’re looking to seriously disrupt the drug dealing network by going after the guys at the bottom.

“In my experience, if you go for people at the bottom, people are less likely to replace them because they know they will get attention, so it disrupts the network.”