Trafford police carried out dawn raids on four addresses on May 11 as they turned up the heat on a gang of criminals believed to be behind a spate of burglaries in the borough.

Messenger gained exclusive behind the scenes footage of the "viper" strike - so called because the police vans travel in a coordinated snake formation on the way to their targets.

To view the video click here.

The raids took place at addresses in Bagley, Northern Moor, Newall Green and Wythenshawe.

Four teams consisting of about a dozen officers from Sale police and the Tactical Aid Unit (TAU) were led by a viper commander, based in the control room, as they executed their warrants at the same time.

Officers were acting on intelligence that a group of burglars have been stealing electrical goods to order' - such as Plasma and LCD televisions - from houses in Brooklands, Sale Moor and Timperley.

Last Friday's raid began with an early morning briefing at Sale police station, before the viper commander deployed his teams to their rendezvous points ready to strike.

Taking control over the airwaves he issued the instructions "viper to all teams standby'," and then the simultaneous raids began.

The plan was that once the occupant has been shown their warrant and the house was secure a search would begin, with seized property being bagged and tagged. Any prisoners would be transported by police van back to the station.

The team we were deployed with visited an address on Selbury Close in Northern Moor and the TAU officers quickly secured the premises. There were three occupants in the house: the male suspect, his mother and sister.

The man was led away from the house for breach of the peace' after being obstructive as officers attempted to search the house.

He was taken to sit in a nearby police van where he was detained while the investigation inside his house continued. Later he was released after no evidence was seized.

But at another address officers had more success. Three men were arrested and two plasma televisions were recovered.

Sale's Area Insp Brendan O'Brien said: "The Messenger was invited by the Trafford division to join the Sale neighbourhood policing team and the TAU to gain an insight into the sort of work that takes place on a weekly basis.

"This is just one of the tactics we use to target those who the division suspects are active in committing burglary in the area. The warrants were carried out simultaneously because we believed these individuals were part of a team.

"As a result of the four warrants two plasma televisions were recovered and three adults were arrested on suspicion of burglary: a 52-year-old man and his two sons aged 22 and 20."

He added that the three men have been bailed pending further inquiries.