Twenty people have been arrested in two weeks as police crack down on seafront drug pushers.

A man from London was arrested on the Lower Promenade, Brighton, last night with 200 suspected ecstasy tablets in his possession.

Inspector Nev Kemp said: "Every other day we are making arrests there - we are determined to stamp out seafront drug dealing."

Recently, the area was swamped with officers and drug selling was wiped out for two days.

Five people were arrested in the space of an hour at the weekend and one man was arrested last week on suspicion of being an illegal immigrant. He was handed over to immigration officers.

Mr Kemp said: "We have arrested about 20 people in total in the past fortnight on the promenade for a variety of drug, drug-related or immigration offences."

Mr Kemp said: "We know we can't be there 24-7 and we realise trading is going on when our backs are turned but I am confident pushers will get the message - sell drugs on the seafront and you will be arrested."

He said: "There is a great deal of determination among officers to crack down on this problem.

"Six officers who were tasked with policing the area recently were supposed to finish their shift at midnight but all of them stayed on until 5am to finish the night's work.

"There is a great deal of enthusiasm and dedication to this operation."

Mr Kemp urged members of the public to help by phoning in if they see drug selling or if they have information about drugs for the police. Call 0845 6070999.