FOUR men who sold more than £40,000 of class A drugs on the streets of Blackburn have been jailed for a total of 20 years.

The gang from Manchester targeted the town to peddle heroin and cocaine to a client list of more than 100 addicts.

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But the dealers were caught out in an undercover sting in which an officer for Lancashire Police posed as a drug user to record secret footage of the gang’s criminal activity.

Nasar Ali, 29, Shuqat Ali, 39, Mohammed Rahman, 31, and Lukman Majeed, 31, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs and appeared side-by-side in the dock at Preston Crown Court to be sentenced.

From the beginning of April 2016 the court was told the men travelled from Manchester to Blackburn on an almost daily basis to sell their drugs.

On arrival in the town, block text messages were sent out from a mobile phone belonging to the gang, advertising their drugs and letting users know they were in town and open for business.

Judge Robert Altham, sentencing, said: “This was pro-active selling, pushing of class A drugs, not simply waiting for the users to come to them but making sure the users knew they were in the area and had these dangerous drugs to sell.”

Users would then place their orders and meet the gang in their car at designated meeting points around the town centre, where the deal would take place.

But on a number of occasions, an officer, disguised as a drug addict, met with the men and bought drugs in a bid to gather evidence to snare them.

Judge Altham said: “One needs to commend the considerable bravery of those who carry out work such as this.”

Nasar Ali, of Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester, boasted he was the head of the operation with the other men working on his orders.

Shuqar Ali, of Rectory Road, Crumpsall, said he was only involved as the driver and would ferry the men between Manchester and Blackburn.

But Judge Altham said: “Drug dealers, in order to ply their trade, need a vehicle and often they need a driver. Mr Ali, regrettably, decided to involve himself in that role. He drove drug dealers around, knowing what they were doing.”

Jeremy Grout-Smith, prosecuting, said the gang sold an estimated 840g of heroin and cocaine with a street value of £40,000 although Judge Altham said the value was a 'conservative estimate' and did not take into account the likelihood of users buying more than a single deal at a time.

In all likelihood the value was far greater, the court was told.

Nasar Ali, who has two previous drug trafficking convictions as well as convictions for violence, was jailed for six years and eight months, with a separate four month concurrent sentence for possession of class A drugs on a separate occasion.

Mohammed Rahman, of Caremine Avenue, Levenshulme, was jailed for four years and eight months; Lukman Majeed, of Broomfield Drive, Cheetham Hill, was jailed for five years and eight months, and Shuqat Ali, was jailed for two years and four months.