More than £1m seized from gangs in less than a year

It marks a new approach by the specialist unit, which is increasingly focused on disrupting crime gangs' activities at an early stage - before the cash can be invested in drugs to turn more profit.

The SCDEA said that by withdrawing large sums of cash from crime outfits they are causing "unprecedented turmoil" to their activities and profitability.

The majority of the cash was seized during raids on property and vehicles. Around 40,000 was confiscated from a goods vehicle on its way to France and almost 90,000 seized from the home of a drug courier in England.

The largest sum recovered by officers so far this year is 200,000.

SCDEA director general, deputy chief constable Gordon Meldrum, said: "Taking drugs off the street is still important, but today organised crime groups don't just deal in drugs - they deal in commodities.

"That's why our approach has shifted towards building knowledge on a group's activities and networks, and taking disruptive action that then hurts them the most.

"For instance, if five years ago we had intelligence that a courier was driving down to the north of England with 10,000 to buy a bag of cocaine, then in all likelihood we would have waited till the deal was done and intercepted him when he got home with the drugs.

"Today, we would almost certainly go for the money because we know that removes the working capital of the gang.

"By attacking the cash flow, we prevent them from being able to invest in controlled drugs and we ultimately disrupt this flow of harmful substances on to the streets."

According to SCDEA estimates, the cash seizures have prevented criminals from generating almost 15m from drug deals.

The sum of 1.25m cash would purchase 56kg of heroin or 27kg of cocaine, which, when bulked with other materials, would be the equivalent to 448,000 "street level" deals of heroin worth 4.5m or 270,000 deals of cocaine worth 10.8m.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said: "This is excellent news. As well as stopping thousands of kilos of drugs from reaching our streets, our police are targeting the hard cash that enables the gangsters to complete their dirty deals.

"When they lose their cash they lose their power - taking away the most basic tool of their tawdry trade means taking away the status of these so-called hard men."