THERE’S no doubt that drugs are a scourge on parts of the Bradford district, particularly some of the inner-city areas.

They can ruin lives, lower the tone of neighbourhoods and rip families apart.

Many who live in communities blighted by drug dealing will welcome the latest police operation to tackle the problem, which has seen 35 criminals snared and jailed for a total of nearly 200 years.

The scale of this operation shows just how many people are involved in drug dealing in and amongst our communities.

Police have come in for criticism in the past for not doing enough to tackle the problem, but the force deserves credit on this occasion for taking so many offenders off the streets and preventing them from peddling their misery.

To crack such a large network, with many different strands, it’s clear that this operation must have been painstaking, persistent and meticulous.

However, drugs remain a troubling issue in Bradford and we suspect there are many more dealers out there than the police are able to deal with. Sadly, as experience has showed, it’s likely that others will already have moved into the areas where the recently-jailed offenders once held sway.

Really, it needs the community to be watchful and to alert police to any suspicious activity in their neighbourhood to allow officers to maintain the pressure on those who persist in selling drugs. While the results of this operation are a step in the right direction, this good work needs to continue if this persistent problem is to be overcome.