Police are seizing control of drug dealers' phone numbers and texting users themselves in an attempt to combat county lines gangs.

Officers in Sussex have become the first in the country to test a pioneering new tool that allows them to get phone lines turned over to their control

Drug dealing telecommunications restriction orders (DDTROs) mean that officers can disrupt the flow of messages between dealers and users, and therefore the flow of drugs.

Detective Superintendent Jo Banks, the senior detective leading the fight against county lines drug gangs in Sussex, said : "It's a disruptions tool. But actually what we are then doing is messaging out to the users from that line to say what the alternatives are for them to actually get some help and try and get out of providing that demand for the drugs line in the first place.

"We would never say it's the golden goose, it's never the answer. But actually as a disruption tactic it is very useful."