POLICE sniffer dogs hunted for drug dealers and users at Clacton’s railway station as part of a knife-crime campaign.

Essex Police launched Operation Statesman in response to a recent knife-point robbery crime spree in the town.

In the past three months more than 30 knife-point muggings have been reported to police, with the youngest victim just 12-years-old.

The item taken most is valuable mobile phones.

As part of the operation, the town centre’s neighbourhood policing team joined forces with the British Transport Police to identify commuters and early-evening revellers who had been travelling with drugs.

Drug dogs sniffed each passenger getting on and off trains at the station, alerting their handlers to any sign of drug-carrying.