Police discovered £1,000 in cash and a “John Wayne-style handgun” in an armed raid in Wallingford.

Twenty police officers, including an armed response unit and a sniffer dog, searched a terraced house in Goldsmith’s Lane at 3pm yesterday.

The 23-year-old male owner was not at home, but police said they seized £1,000 in bank notes and a handgun.

Sgt Fraser Weller, leading the operation, said: “We have seized the money under the Proceeds Of Crime Act and will make representations to magistrates about it.

“We will be talking to the owner of the property and asking him to give a reasonable explanation as to what the money is about.

“Whether or not the firearm we have seized is an imitation or not, we do not yet know.

“It looks like it may have been deactivated but, if so, it will still require a licence.”

The raid was carried out as part of the ongoing Operation Momentum, which aims to disrupt drug-dealers and users believed to be responsible for a rise in thefts, burglaries and robberies around Didcot and Wallingford.

Officers have already raided a series of properties across south Oxfordshire.

On February 23, they searched six properties in Wallingford, Berinsfield and Didcot – and Sgt Weller vowed further raids would follow if new information came through.

He said: “The operation is still running. It was initially for a month, but as long as fresh intelligence is filtering through, we will keep doing this until people get the message.

“Anybody out there who has information about suspected drug-dealing in their areas should call the police or Crimestoppers.”

The operation was launched in response to a series of break-ins.

Between August 2009 and January this year, there were 74 burglaries in Didcot, and 103 in Wallingford. There were 33 car thefts and items were snatched from 86 vehicles.

Anyone with information about suspected drug-dealing should call police on 08458 505505 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.