The youngsters, all 16-year-old boys, were seized as officers smashed drugs dens believed to be peddling Class A drugs, including heroin and crack cocaine.

A 24-year-old and a 37-year-old from the Greenlands estate area of Ribbleton were also arrested as part of Tuesday's dawn raids.

More than 100 police officers, including drugs sniffer dogs, took part in the raids which they hope will take some of the city's worst dealers off the streets.

It is believed the raids could also be related to gang violence in Preston following months of gun and knife attacks on its streets.

Officers dressed in body armour and helmets used battering rams to beat the doors down of two semi-detached houses on Dawnay Road, off Longridge Road.

Shocked neighbours gathered on doorsteps to watch as police vans surrounded the houses and officers arrested one man.

Police had to use a fire extinguisher to calm down a snarling pit bull dog as they burst into one of the houses.

More raids were expected to be carried out later on Tuesday.

Ch Supt Pete White, the officer in charge of the operation, said the dealers had brought misery to residents in Ribbleton.

He said: "What we are talking about is people that will deal drugs, predominantly on the street, to anyone that will buy them.

"It's such a shame that people have to live in the proximity of people like this."

One grandmother who has lived on the estate for nearly 40 years said she was too scared to go out after dark because of the dealers.

She said: "It shouldn't be like this. I can remember a time when you could go to bed and leave your door open. We just do not need it and I'm sick of it."

Another woman, who asked not to be named, said: "This corner is notorious for drug dealers. You see people coming on the estate that you don't know, you see them dealing outside your garden."

Police wagons packed with officers, including specialist search and arrest teams and dog units capable of sniffing out money, left the police's operations centre in the city centre and targeted addresses across Ribbleton.

Ch Supt White added that the raids were "very disruptive" and thanked local people for their support during the activity, which is part of the police's Operation Nimrod campaign.

He said Tuesday's action was the culmination of months of investigations into drug dealing rings rife throughout parts of Preston.

Meanwhile, Bernard Hogan-Howe, chief constable of Merseyside Police, called on judges to hit people caught in possession of firearms with mandatory five-year sentences.

He said that judges had been wrong to not use their powers to hand out "very heavy" penalties.

>> Vote in our latest web poll