The UK's largest rural policing operation of its kind resulted in almost 70 vehicles stopped, drugs seized and numerous suspects arrested.
Operation Checkpoint, which consisted of seven police forces across the UK, ran overnight on Wednesday 30 March and into the early hours of Thursday.
It is part of an ongoing initiative that targets suspected criminal activity in remote rural areas.
The latest available figures show that rural theft cost the UK an estimated £43.3 million in 2020, a decrease of 20% on the previous year.
However, 2020 was no ordinary year, as lockdown helped to lock criminals out of the countryside.
But concern is now mounting over the potential for there to be a dramatic increase in rural crime incidents, particularly as Covid restrictions ease, as well as a cost of living crisis.
Designed to swiftly disrupt the organised network and protect rural and farming communities, the seven police forces acted on local intelligence and emerging crime trends.
Northumbria Police, Durham Constabulary, Cleveland Police, Cumbria Police, Lancashire Constabulary and North and West Yorkshire Police took part, making it one of the biggest multi-agency operations ever seen in the UK.
Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, Kim McGuinness said: “Operation Checkpoint is a real stand-out operation, as these results prove, and I often hear really positive comments when speaking with residents.
“As well as ramped up policing efforts, crucial to its success are the local people who’ve signed up as volunteers in these neighbourhoods - local intelligence is everything.
"Our region boasts some really beautiful but vast and somewhat isolated places and having local people as our eyes and ears really helps in the fight against rural crime.”
