His hands clasped loosely behind him, the wiry man rocked gently on his feet in what seemed to be a familiar stance.

With an absent-minded gaze, he slowly scanned the small stretch of road in front of him - one of Bradford's most notorious drug-dealing hotspots.

Ten yards to his right stood another, slightly younger man decked out in a dark tracksuit and £120 trainers. Fifteen yards to his left, another held the same expectant pose.

Within three minutes, the central figure, sporting short, stubby dreadlocks and a dazzlingly white T-shirt, snapped from his statuesque state and moved towards the roadside where a battered Volkswagen Golf had pulled to a halt.

Its driver - a chubby, nondescript white man in his late thirties - made eye contact and gave the smallest hint of a nod.

Moments later, in the seclusion of a darkened doorway, they huddled close together, each looking down at the other's hands as they made the swap.

And so within 20 seconds the deal was done: another happy customer strode back to his car, his purchase thrust deep into a pocket.

Business has been good for the dealers here. This one could expect many more such deals throughout the day. Some punters will only buy cannabis which, while profitable, is no great earner.

The dealers know there is real money to be made in the well-established heroin market and even more through touting highly addictive "rocks" of crack cocaine.

While serious heroin addicts may spend £100 a day on the drug, crack users - who experience a short "high" lasting just a few seconds - can shell out hundreds on a single binge.

And to maximise their profits while minimising the potential for being arrested, the dealers are increasingly running "ring-and-bring" delivery services throughout the city. Armed with a mobile phone to take orders and a good supply of individual heroin and crack wraps, they will simply tour streets and drop off orders where they are needed.

Some of the most profitable mobile dealers have boasted about taking £25,000 in a single week.

But the dealers' rapid wealth comes at a high price to the rest of us.

A Home Office study showed that addicts who used both heroin and crack could easily commit 200 property crimes a year to support their habits. It also found that those using three types of drugs committed three times more crimes than non-addict offenders .

Shoplifters funding a £100-a-day heroin habit will need to sell three times that amount of goods stolen from city stores. One addict alone could cost traders more than £2,000 in a week.

And in desperation to get their next fix before the pains of withdrawal set in, others might turn to burglary, car-jacking or street robberies, generating even more misery in their communities.

Chief Superintendent Graham Sunderland said the first big successes of the district drugs team showed that the tide was finally turning on the dealers - but that they needed the public's support.

"It is everyone's responsibility to tackle this problem and that is why we are asking them to call us about dealers so we can take them off the streets," he said.