Burglaries have plummeted after police launched a war on drug dealers and users.

The number of break-ins in Brighton and Hove has more than halved in the past two years as officers targeted drug offenders.

Across the city the burglary rate fell by 57 per cent - while the number of drug criminals caught rose by the same amount.

Last night police bosses warned criminals to quit their habits or find themselves in the cells.

Chief Inspector David Miller, of Sussex Police, said: "Dealers and burglars better be looking over their shoulders because we're coming to get them."

Police bosses credit the dramatic fall in burglaries to Operation Reduction, which began in 2005. It was set up to tackle drug and drug-related crime in the city.

Not only are dealers targeted but users are offered drug treatment.

By tackling people who have serious drug habits, the amount of acquisitive crime has fallen.

Mr Miller said: "We were pretty bad a few years ago. There was a tremendous amount of burglary not being detected.

"Burglaries are drug-fuelled and people need to steal to feed the habit.

"When crack houses are operating we see a rise in burglaries around the property and quickly work at shutting them down."

He said police could not afford to be complacent, even though there were just two burglaries in the city on one night this week.

Mr Miller said: "Out of a city of 250,000 people it's remarkable.

Every two weeks we have tactical intelligence meetings and look at who and where we can target.

We have to continue being really persistent.

"Burglary hits victims very hard. Some are even forced to move home as a result."

He said bogus callers had been a specific problem and many were not drug-related burglaries but carried out by people coming into the area. He said: "We will catch up with them."

The crackdown has led to burglary rates tumbling across the city.

In east Brighton the number of break-ins has plummeted from 207 in 2004-05 to just 28 last year, a drop of 86 per cent.

In St Peter's and North Laine the total dropped by 58 per cent, down from 211 two years ago to just 89.

Across the rest of the county, however, less than one in seven burglaries committed last year was solved.

Earlier this year, The Argus reported the story of the Brunswick burglar who carried out what a judge called, an "orgy of serious crime" to fund his crack cocaine habit.

Frank Baki Fischer had broken into more than 22 flats in the Brunswick area of Hove to raise money to pay a £6,000 drug debt. He was sent to prison in February for three years.

Brighton Kemptown MP Des Turner called the latest figures "spectacularly good."

He said: "Drugs and acquisitive crime are linked.

"If one goes down we would hope the other would go down too because so much theft is drug-related.

"There is always more work to do and we haven't quite got the approach to drugs right just yet. It's a very difficult area."

Yesterday, Mr Turner saw first-hand the work of Brighton's drug squad.

He was campaigning in Wiston Road when police carried out a drugs raid on a home.

Class A drugs were discovered and two people were arrested.

Police and Brighton and Hove City Council are now working to get the property shut down.