Women possessing amphetamine and cannabis were discovered by a sniffer dog in Maidstone town centre last week.

The drugs dog, which was deployed on Friday, March 7, pulled over five people to be searched under the misuse of drugs act.

A 21 year-old woman from Ramsgate was found to be in possession of a small amount of amphetamine and was given a police caution.

A 22 year old woman from Sandwich was found in possession of cannabis and was given a formal warning.

Three special constables joined the dog handlers and officers from the local neighbourhood policing team also patrolled the town centre.

Plain clothed officers were also in force to try and identify potential offences.

Police also claim to have gained valuable intelligence by carrying out stop-checks on people who have been known to previously possess drugs in the town centre.

Special Sergeant Paul Martin from Kent Police said: "This was a successful operation and a good opportunity for volunteer officers to work alongside regular and specialist officers and gain valuable experience.

"We had a lot of positive feedback and interest in our work from shoppers, and having drugs dogs out acts as a deterrent.

"There will be more of these operations in the near future and the Special Constabulary will again be contributing."

Sergeant John Marshall from the town centre policing team said: "We like to run high visibility operations like this because the success is two-fold; we identify people who are carrying drugs and we also deter people from doing so.

"We want people to know that if they bring drugs into Maidstone there is a real risk that they will get caught.

"We will be carrying out further operations of this nature to keep the heat on people committing drugs offences."