Cash totalling £225,000 and drugs worth more than £315,000 have been seized from suspected criminals in a major police crackdown.

Stolen and counterfeit goods worth £25,440 were also taken during the operation, one of the largest carried out in Scotland, and £7 million worth of assets were referred for seizure.

The moves were the latest phase of the Made From Crime? initiative, which involves three forces, with cash redistributed to worthy causes.

Six weeks of intelligence- gathering by Lothian and Borders Police, Fife Constabulary and Central Scotland Police resulted in a 48-hour operation to seize some of the goods and make arrests.

Seventy-eight addresses were targeted and 74 people were arrested across the force areas. Two vehicles were also seized by police.

Most of the arrests, 44, were in the Lothian and Borders area, while 19 were in Fife and 11 in the Central area.

Detective Superintendent David Gordon, head of serious organised crime for the specialist crime division in the east of Scotland, said: "This campaign was deliberately designed to be ambitious and tenacious, and target criminals who believed they could live lavish lifestyles from the proceeds of crime.

"The response we had from local communities throughout the intelligence-gathering phase was fantastic and showed they were not prepared to tolerate criminality in their area. The months of planning for the enforcement phase have paid off throughout the past few days and we are delighted with the results, which is a fantastic start for the new specialist crime division."

The campaign, launched in January, saw police asking members of the public to come forward to the charity Crimestoppers and report their suspicions about people breaking the law to make money.

Crimestoppers reported a 31% rise in calls from the east of the country.

The intelligence was analysed by officers and, from Wednesday until the early hours of yesterday morning, 400 uniformed and detective officers across the east of Scotland were involved in the operation to pursue suspects.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill welcomed the results of the campaign.

"There should be no hiding place in our neighbourhoods for those who cash in on crime, and this will continue to be a top priority for this Government and the new single police service when it goes live shortly," he said.

Kate Jackson, national manager for Crimestoppers Scotland, said it had been a successful campaign.

She said: "Members of the public clearly want to make a difference in their area by reporting criminals and wrongdoing, and don't like to see anyone living off the proceeds of crime."