THE number of people caught dealing drugs in the Lothians has soared by more than a third in the space of a year.
A total of 2532 people were charged by police with possession with intent to supply last year.
But the new figures revealed a slight drop in the volume of users caught in possession of illegal substances.
Police chiefs today said the increase i
n dealers being caught was down to the force's "proactive approach" in clamping down on the drug trade.
Earlier this year, it emerged a dealer is arrested on average every five hours in Edinburgh, with more now caught in the Capital than any other part of Scotland.
Drug campaigners said the rise may only have been a reflection of greater police activity, but backed the focus on tracking down the dealers.
Between April 2006 and March last year, the number of alleged dealers who were arrested rose by 34.4 per cent against the previous 12 months when 1884 were caught.
Cases of possession fell during the same period, dropping 5.2 per cent from 4204 to 3985.
The figures from Lothian and Borders Police were revealed by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill following a parliamentary question from Tory Lothians MSP Gavin Brown.
Lothian and Borders Police carried out a series of major raids last year. Dozens of addresses were raided across the city in a string of operations, with one single blitz in March netting 75 suspected heroin and crack dealers.
Tom Wood, head of Action on Alcohol and Drugs in Edinburgh, said: "These figures show that Lothian and Borders Police are prioritising the arrests of drug dealers, which is very welcome and creditable.
"Levels of enforcement do determine the amount of arrests made to a great extent, but this performance is still creditable.
"The police are taking the right direction by concentrating more on dealing rather than possession."
But Mr Brown criticised the previous administration's fight against drugs for failing to curb the problem.
He said: "These deeply worrying figures highlight further failings of the previous Scottish Executive's drugs policy.
"The last Executive threw money at drugs policy without any measures being taken to assess the effectiveness of the spending and it is vitally important that this does not happen this time around."
A police spokeswoman said the figures showed work to make communities drug-free was paying dividends. "Over the past year there have been many long-running drug-related operations. In March 2007, 75 people were snared over three days in the city's biggest ever raids," she said.
"A key part of our success is the information we get from residents which can lead us to drug dealers. This has proved invaluable in the past, and we would urge anyone who knows of any suspicious activity to get in touch."
Last year, detectives prepared a hit list of 80 individuals and made 62 arrests in a single swoop.
About 200 officers were involved in raiding dozens of addresses in Granton, Oxgangs, Sighthill, Drylaw, Restalrig, Niddrie, Leith, Pilton, the Old Town, Southside, South Gyle, Haymarket, Craigentinny, Craigmillar, Slateford and the city centre.
Days later, 50 officers were involved in two raids in Leith against an English gang.
The full article contains 545 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
