The high visibility operation unfolded in Manilla, Attunga, Somerton and Barraba areas, with drivers slapped with speeding, seatbelts and truck compliance tickets, as well as others charged with drug driving and other traffic infringements.

The Leader was there as close to a dozen police saturated the roads, stopping drivers for random breath and drug testing and compliance checks.

Local highway officers are trained to use electronic control module (ECM) technology to download data from the speed limiters on trucks to detect whether they’ve been tampered with.

“We have these specialist resources available and we will continue to use them on our local roads and highways, at anytime, and motorists won’t know when we’re around the corner,” Manilla Acting Sergeant Todd Petrie said.

A 60-year-old truck driver from Hallsville was one of the first to face the wrath of police after he was stopped in at a stationary site in Attunga.

Officers searched the truck but the driver was slapped with a $630 fine after not carrying a log book.

One Manilla local copped a $108 fine and will lose one demerit point after flashing his lights to warn motorists up ahead – an offence under NSW law.

Another will front court after he was detected with cannabis in his system, while a woman copped a hefty fine after she failed to restrain her children in a car seat in her Toyota van.

Locals told The Leader “they had never seen so many police in town” while others remarked you “couldn’t go round the corner without seeing another cop car”.

Acting Sergeant Petrie said the blitz was aiming to deter drivers from doing the wrong thing.

“The operation involves police from Gunnedah, Tamworth, Somerton, Manilla, Barraba as well as highway patrol officers in cars and on motorbike,” Acting Sergeant Petrie said.

“Any car at anytime is an RBT or RDT, and the aim is to ensure motorists do the right thing in our communities.

“We want drivers to be safe on the roads, do the right thing, don’t speed or drive if they’re tired and don’t drive if they’re drinking or fatigued.”