A CAREER drug dealer, who has twice dodged deportation, has been jailed for 11 years.

Mahmoud Jaber, of Arncliffe Avenue, Accrington, was sent to prison after being convicted of dealing cocaine – for the third time.

The 33-year-old was sentenced at Preston Crown Court at the end of a two-day hearing for his part in a 10-man conspiracy to supply dugs and to launder cash across Lancashire, Manchester and Leicester.

Jaber was convicted of arranging with gang leader Zahid Khan for half a kilo of cocaine with a street value of around £34,000 to £40,000 to be delivered to him for trading on the streets of East Lancashire.

The court heard it was recovered when officers stopped a vehicle driven by gang courier Wasim Akthar heading Eastbound between junctions 3 and 4 of the M65 on March 2, last year.

Palestinian-born Jaber claimed his telephone contact with Khan was “entirely innocent” and nothing to do with any conspiracy.

While the other nine all pleaded guilty, Jaber was only convicted at a second trial after the original jury could not agree on a verdict.

He and five others were jailed for a total for a total of 40 years on Thursday.

All 10 gang members were arrested in co-ordinated police raids in July 2015 under ‘Operation Hombre’.

Officers seized around one kilo of heroin and one kilo of cocaine, with a street value of £180,000, and impounded £50,000 in cash, the court was told.

Jaber had served three previous jail sentences, two for drug dealing and one for money laundering.

In June 2014 immigration appeal judge Richard Chalkley ruled he should be deported because of his “appalling” criminal record, dating back to his first heroin and crack cocaine dealing conviction in 2004.

He had avoided a deportation ruling in May 2007 after a successful appeal under the Human Rights Act.

The Lancashire Telegraph understands that Home Office attempts to deport Jaber back to Palestine were frustrated by the lapse of his Israeli passport and the Tel-Aviv government’s refusal to issue the replacement needed for him to be returned to their territory.

This made Jaber, who had been in the UK since 1998 after his parents came here, effectively ‘stateless’.

DS Mark Lee, from Lancashire Police’s Serious Organised Crime Unit, said: “We have dismantled a significant drugs network, taking large quantities of cocaine and heroin off our streets and ensuring that those involved in the conspiracy have been brought to justice.”

Khan, 40, of Albert Terrace Preston was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment.

Akhtar, 44, of Ashleigh Street, Preston, was sentenced to six years and four months imprisonment.