Drink driving and driving under the influence of drugs were among several offences people were arrested on suspicion of during a police operation.

More than 150 vehicles were stopped by officers from the Three Rivers Operation Scorpion team and Thames Valley Police during the two-day operation on the M25 corridor between junctions 17 and 18.

Using both marked and unmarked police vehicles coupled with ANPR technology, officers patrolled this section of the motorway as well as the main arterial routes crossing from Hertfordshire into Buckinghamshire from July 22 to July 23.

Police spoke to drivers of vehicles that were stopped and passengers over the nature of their journeys, while more than 20 stop searches were conducted.

Hertfordshire Constabulary said that over the course of the operation, nine people were arrested on suspicion of a range of offences.

These include drug possession, theft of a vehicle, drink driving, going equipped to steal, breach of bail, driving under the influence of drugs and the fraudulent use of number plates.

The force added that eight vehicles were seized for no insurance or other criminal offences.

Ten drivers were reported for various traffic offences such as no tax or insurance and four fixed penalty notices were issued for offences such as tinted number plates, obscuring a number plate and keeping a vehicle without a number pate.

Three Rivers Chief Inspector Adam Such said: “The Scorpion team have once again set an example in the way they have coordinated this operation with professionalism. It is an excellent illustration of the disruptive and preventative work that Scorpion teams carry out across Hertfordshire every day using proactive stop and search powers.

“This time, they have had even more of an impact after teaming up with their colleagues over the border in Thames Valley. It’s no secret that criminals use our road networks to travel from county to county, but we want them to know that we won’t tolerate offending in Hertfordshire.”