A BARBER has been convicted of playing a role in a £250,000 heroin and cocaine ring which had been using his salon as a front.

Ihsaan Ali, 36, was found to have allowed his business, Modern Image, in Halifax Road, Brierfield, to be used as a cover for drug dealing between January and June last year.

The court was told that Ali supplied small amounts of cocaine to customers after a number of incriminating texts were discovered on a mobile phone found in his home after a search.

Jurors at Preston Crown Court also heard the hair stylist allowed brothers Furqan and Zishan Amjad to store a half-kilogram block of heroin in an empty flat above his shop.

They and four other member of the drugs ring, all from the Brierfield and Burnley area, have already admitted their part in the gang and are awaiting sentence.

Prosecutor William Baker said the heroin block, at around 60 per cent strength, was of such high purity that the street value for it alone was potentially more than £74,000.

Mr Baker said that Ali was picked up by Furqan Amjad from his home to get the drugs from the flat at his shop, before he was given a lift home.

Later the heroin block was handed over to a drug dealer from the Huddersfield area, who had been brought to East Lancashire in a taxi, Mr Baker said.

Ali, of Heyhead Street, Brierfield, had denied conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine but was convicted after a three-day trial.

The court heard he was involved in mobile phone conversations with either the Amjads or fellow members of a drugs gang, both before and after the trade-off.

Mr Baker said that the Huddersfield man’s taxi was later stopped and the drugs were discovered in the vehicle.

Later Furqan Amjad made more than 30 calls to the same man’s mobile - but it had been seized by police.

The court heard Ali’s barber’s shop was raided on June 4 last year after his home had been searched and a small amount of cocaine was found in the upstairs flat next to a credit card in his name.

Interviewed about the offence, Ali accepted that he knew the Amjad brothers, and others who have admitted drug-dealing, as their barber but denied he played any role in the overall conspiracy.

Police have said the conspiracy altogether was worth around £250,000.

The court was told conspiracy had taken place between June 2013 and June 2014, with different people being responsible for different roles during that time.

Furqan Amjad, 24, of Halifax Road, and Zishan Amjad, 26, of Eskdale Close, Haroon Mahmood, 24, of John Street and Shiraz Afzal, 27, of Limefield Avenue, all Brierfield, and Anwar Ahmed, of Colne Road, and Ziad Khaliq, 28, of Devonshire Road, both Burnley, have each admitted the same drugs conspiracy charges and are awaiting sentence.

A spokesman for the salon yesterday said Ali was no longer involved in the business.