A gangster who flooded the streets of East Lancashire with lethal drugs and repeatedly raped a woman has had his prison sentence extended.

Umar Hamid was the head of an organised crime group that was responsible for the supply of lethal drugs in and around Blackburn from 2018 to 2020.

The gang ran two drug dealing networks – one which supplied heroin and crack cocaine and another which dealt with the sale of drugs such as cocaine, MDMA and ketamine.

At the time he was dealt with for the drug-related offences, Hamid was already serving a 17-year custodial sentence for raping a woman, a term which had been handed down to him in February of last year. On top of that, he was subjected to a five-year extended licence period.

Last April, when he appeared in front of a judge at Preston Crown Court, he was sentenced to 10 years and 10 months imprisonment for his role in running the gang, with the court ordering that Hamid would serve the sentence concurrently with his existing 17-year spell.

This meant Hamid would serve no extra time behind bars – something the then Solicitor General Alex Chalk QC MP disagreed with.

As a result, the sentence was referred to the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.

On July 13, the Court of Appeal found Hamid’s original sentence to be unduly lenient and imposed a new consecutive sentence of six years’ imprisonment, which means that Hamid will now have to serve an extra six years in prison.

Therefore, his total sentence length is now 23 years’ imprisonment with a five-year extended licence.

Speaking after the hearing, the current Solicitor General Edward Timpson CBE MP said: “Supplying illegal, dangerous drugs on this scale is a serious crime that ruins lives. I welcome the decision of the court today to impose a sentence that better reflects the gravity of Umar Hamid’s offending.”

Back in February of 2021 when sentenced for the rape offences, Judge David Potter said that "rarely had the court seen a more forceful description of an exceptionally dangerous man".

He added: “You are assessed as a being of a high risk of committing further sexual offences and very high risk of further offences of violence. You are unquestionably a dangerous offender.”

The court heard how Hamid’s reign of terror began when the woman was just 18 years old and was sustained over a 14-year period.

Weapons such as guns and machetes were used during his repeated assaults on his victim, who also suffered stab wounds from a serrated knife and car keys on other occasions.

Most of the offending took place between 2006 and 2013 but resurfaced in the spring of 2020 when the victim reported him to the police.

Hamid, now 32, previously of Hazel Avenue in Darwen, was arrested in May 2020 and was convicted of 11 offences including rape, assault and firearms offences following a trial.