THREE men have been arrested and a large amount of suspected class A and B drugs have been seized in a series of raids in and around Oldham.

At around 5.30am on Tuesday, officers from GMP Oldham's Challenger Team made the raids at three properties in Failsworth and Newton Heath.

After searching the properties, officers found 13kg of suspected class A and B drugs, including cocaine and amphetamine – also known as speed.

They also found more than £3000 in cash, designer clothes and jewellery.

The Oldham Times: (Image: Greater Manchester Police)(Image: Greater Manchester Police)

Three men in their 30s were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to supply cocaine, with two of them also arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to supply amphetamine, money laundering and possession of a prohibited weapon.

All three men remain in custody for questioning.

Detective Sergeant Alex Brown of GMP's Oldham Challenger Team, said: "Today's action is the culmination of months of intricate investigative work and is another positive result for the team in our endeavour to disrupt and dismantle the distribution and trade of drugs across our region.

"Thankfully today we have been able to remove what is suspected to be a large quantity of drugs from our community, and although we have three men in custody, our searches and investigation will continue this morning and we will ensure all criminal assets are seized.

The Oldham Times: (Image: Greater Manchester Police)(Image: Greater Manchester Police)

"An inordinate amount of work goes on behind the scenes to investigate the distribution of drugs and I hope today's arrests and seizures send a stark warning that GMP will do all in its power to pursue offenders and ensure no one benefits from ill-gotten gains and the sale of drugs."

The raids were part of an ongoing investigation into the supply of class A drugs and the use of a secretive communications network called EncroChat.

Codenamed Operation Foam, the Greater Manchester-wide investigation is itself part of the National Crime Agency's Operation Venetic and it has been in action for 15 months.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101, or to use the online chat function on gmp.police.uk.

People can also contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.