A DRUG dealer from Accrington has been told to pay more than £40,000 or face 15 months in jail after profiting from supplying heroin in the town.

Kashif Hamid, 31, formerly of Portland Street, was jailed last September for his part in a drug conspiracy which saw heroin supplied on the streets of Hyndburn.

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He was convicted of supplying Class A drugs as a part of Operation Kaitlyn, which saw several men jailed after separate trials at Bradford Crown Court and Burnley Crown Court.

Now, following a Proceeds of Crime hearing at Burnley Crown Court, Hamid has been ordered to pay £42,430 within a period of two months or face an additional prison sentence of 15 months.

The heroin ring’s kingpin, Rizwan Arshad, a blind university graduate, commanded operations either side of the Pennines, the court heard.

He was jailed for 21 years in September.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall earlier labelled the gang as a ‘sophisticated and planned enterprise’.

At another Operation Kaitlyn trial in Burnley last October two other Accrington men, Nadeem Abbas and next-door neighbour Zaheer Mahmood, were jailed for their parts in the operation.

Abbas, 33, and Mahmood, 49, were caught with heroin valued at £40,000, along with a hydraulic press which is used in the manufacture of street drugs, after police raided a house in Persia Street, Accrington in November 2013, as part of a series of busts across the two counties.

Further searches of the house uncovered a handgun, silencer and ammunition, hidden underneath the bed of Abbas.

Abbas insisted he had only moved from Nelson to Accrington, looking for work, after being promised a takeaway job by Kashif Hamid.

At that trial, Judge Graham Knowles QC, said: “It is inevitable for offences of this seriousness that the defendants are going to prison for a long time.”