VIDEO: Police District Commander discusses today's raid and London drugs coming to Worthing

Speaking to the Herald following today's raid on a flat in Newland Road, Chief Inspector Miles Ockwell said he hoped the public would be reassured by the sight of officers carrying out this sort of raid.

The raid in Newland Road took place about 12.10pm this afternoon, with officers using a battering ram to break the door open and crawling through a small hole.

Chief Inspector Ockwell said: "Today we have been executing a search warrant in Worthing town centre at an address where we believe drug dealing was taking place.

"We forced entry into a first floor flat using specially trained officers and equipment.

"Unfortunately we did not make any arrests or recover any drugs on this occasion but it's part of some wider work that we are doing around Worthing in particular where we've got problematic drug dealing going on with associated violence."

Asked about the wider drug dealing landscape in Worthing, Chief Inspector Ockwell said it is not exclusively a local problem.

"We have a number of drug lines that come into Worthing, particularly from London, which is a problem across the south east of England.

"We are really focussing on tracking these lines across the town, mainly because of the associated violence that comes with that drug dealing and to seek to protect vulnerable people that these drug gangs take advantage of.

"I hope you will be reassured to see the operational policing that's going on in and around Worthing. Secondly just to ask you if you do see suspicious activity or you're worried about a particular address please do tell us.

"If we don't know about it we can't act upon it."

To report information to the police visit the Sussex Police website or call 101. In an emergency call 999.