Police raided homes in West Molesey and Twickenham as part of an operation targeting one of the UK's biggest cocaine and cannabis rings.

The dawn raids at Buckingham Avenue, West Molesey, and Park Crescent, Twickenham, were among two dozen executed simultaneously in London and the Home Counties.

Eighteen people were arrested as homes and business properties were searched as police targeted the heads of a £100million criminal network.

A total of 30 officers burst into the property in West Molesey, searched two cars outside and a 53-year-old man of Egyptian origin was arrested.

At one property in Hayes, west London, police used a mechanical digger to smash into the luxury home of one of the suspected kingpins of the cocaine empire.

Officers swarmed inside after a hole was smashed in a wall surrounding the fortified £3million property.

The raids followed more than six months of surveillance and information-gathering by Scotland Yard's elite specialist intelligence section.

Police targeted the heads of several well-established gangs who came together to create a "clearing house" to launder drug profits.

Detective Superintendent Steve Richardson, who was responsible for the operation, said the raids were the final blow to dismantle the network.

Police had already seized almost £3million in cash, 70kg (155lb) of cocaine with a street value of £500,000 and four guns, including one with a silencer.

Mr Richardson said criminals laundered more than £100 million of drug money through a network of foreign exchange bureaux and other financial businesses.