EIGHT people have been charged following a series of dawn raids which aimed to take out two drug supply lines.

A hundred police officers were scrambled to a series of addresses, mainly in Clacton, but also in London, Colchester and Braintree on Thursday morning.

Specialist teams forced entry into properties and seized a large amount of cash, Class A drugs and a stun gun.

In total 14 people arrested.

Eight of those have now been charged with conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

They are:

• Kenneth Blinkho, 30, of Dudley Road, Clacton;

• Daron Noel, 42, of Lyndhurst Road, Holland-on-Sea;

• Owen Carter, 18, of Tony Rawson Way, Dagenham;

• Tony Dove, 35, of Elm Grove, Clacton;

• Richard Mensah, 30, of South Countess Road, Walthamstow;

• Kwame Banahene, 23, of John Ruskin Street, London SE5;

• Tim Miller, 44, of Wellesley Road, Clacton;

• Timothea Hutchinson, 42, of London Road, Clacton.

Blinkho, Noel, Carter, and Dove are all due to appear at Colchester Magistrates’ Court on Friday while Mensah, Banahene, Miller, and Hutchinson are all due to appear on Saturday.

Three people – a man and two women – have been released under investigation.

Another man and a woman have been released on bail until March 4 and a fourth woman has been released on bail until March 2.

Police had been working on Operation Cheta for seven months and believe they have already taken out one drug gang.

They hoped the raids would result in another two out-of-town drug supply operations to be demolished.