Specialist police officers arrested a suspected gang member for possessing drugs in a raid at a house in Plaistow this morning.

The raid was part of a six-week crackdown called Operation Nulfass which has been targeting gangs across Newham, the Custom House gang in particular.

Newham police said the gang is involved in supplying drugs across east London and the Home Counties.

Officers from the Territorial Support Group, a central Metropolitan Police unit, arrived at a property in Grange Road early this morning. A suspected gang member was thought to live at the house.

More than 14 officers covered all its exits in a fast paced operation before using hydraulic instruments to force entry into the property, waking up the residents.

Once inside they carried out a thorough search of the premises.

A sniffer dog, trained to find drugs and guns, was then brought to the house where quantities of several different drugs, thought to be Class A, were found.

A youth, thought to be involved with a gang, was arrested.

The raid was carried out by officers from the Territorail Support Group and Trident. The latter deal with gang-related gun crime, as the majority of gun crime is gang related. Officers from the TSG are deployed in cases where gang membership is suspected and are trained at gaining rapid access to properties.