A PRE-CHRISTMAS police push against Bolton's criminals saw 20 people arrested.

On Tuesday, officers worked throughout the day to round up as many of a 60-person hit list drawn up by police.

The day of action was part of Operation Bauble, a GMP force-wide initiative to reinforce the message that police will not be winding down their work over Christmas.

The 20 arrests exceeded officers' expectations for the day.

A further five targets were detained in the evening of December 16, after 15 had been caught earlier in the day.

During the morning, eight people were arrested, including a 33-year-old man at a house in Brandwood Street, Deane.

Police found a 14-plant cannabis farm, with an estimated street value of £7,000, there when they arrested the man and took him into custody.

A man and woman were arrested in Winster Drive, Breightmet, after police found cannabis being dried.

Five of the other people arrested were wanted on court warrants, while one woman caught was wanted for an offence under the Immigration Act.

Those detained were mostly repeat offenders, wanted for drug dealing, robbery, burglary and other crimes.

Supt Andrea Jones, the highest-ranked officer based permanently in Bolton, said: "This is part of a message to criminals operating in Bolton that we are not winding down just because it's Christmas.

"If you are committing crime or thinking of committing crime in Bolton, we are as ready as ever to tackle you.

"A lot of Bolton's worst offenders are being locked up and won't be free to commit crime over Christmas.

"This is every day for us. We are hunting down people who have committed burglaries and robberies every single day.

"This is not a one-off."