AN East Lancs businessman man who built a successful trading empire and who was described as a “kind God fearing man” played a “leading role in an organised crime group” selling large quantities of drugs.

Irtiza Bashir, who owned two luxury homes and drove a Bentley was involved in supplying 537 kilogrammes of drugs with a street value of £40m has been jailed for more than 20 years.

The boss of Haslingden-based Globe Recycling Services was involved in a conspiracy to smuggle huge quantities of cocaine from the Netherlands, packed in frozen chickens, to a cold storage unit in the Blackburn and Accrington area.

Following a trial at Bolton Crown Court, Bashir was found guilty of being at the centre of a conspiracy to import heroin and cannabis into the country and used the encrypted EncroChat messaging system to direct his empire Using a code name of ‘Weststreet’ he made communications with others on the software EncroChat.

The court heard the platform was favoured by criminals because it appeared to be immune to hacking, but has since been shut down.

Access was obtained by French police, who passed their information onto the British counterparts.

Bashir, aged 46, uploaded pictures of himself with his garden on Chorley New Road, Bolton, in the background which allowed officers to detect him.

It later emerged he had been involved in the drugs trade between October 2019 and December last year and had plans to bring in drugs from Spain and Holland.

A raid of his business, and his home revealed his conspiracy to bring in drugs from abroad.

Bashir went on court where he denied all the charges.

He was found guilty of conspiring to import cocaine and ketamine, conspiring to supply cocaine, heroin and cannabis and conspiring to launder money and appeared in court to be sentenced.

Mark Fryman, prosecuting, revealed the totals involved, referencing a report on what was found on his EncroChat account.

He said: “There were 537 kilogrammes of drugs, with a street value of £40,740,000.

“The total amount of money reference was £3,658,025.

“The cocaine was at least 338 kilogrammes, heroin was at least 55 kilogrammes, the cannabis was at least 144 kilogrammes.”

He added: “Mr Bashir the crown submit played a leading role in an organised crime group.

Peter Wright KC, defending, said Bashir was facing lost time with his family including his teenage son over the length of the prison sentence he would serve.

He added that he had built a successful business and had made charitable donations.

Passing sentence, Judge Elliot Knopf blasted the impact of drugs.

He said: “For more than 25 years now I have witnessed in sitting in crown courts over the period the effect of drugs on society, the effect on the addict who commits acquisitive crime in order to feed his habit, the effect on the family on addicts who very often struggle to comprehend how it is that their sibling of their partner has spiralled down into the abyss because of their addiction and of course the effect on the victims of acquisitive crimes.”

He said those who fell into the temptation of selling drugs for money must be shown “there is a heavy price to pay.”

He acknowledged there would be an effect on the family of Bashir and said he had read references to him as a “kind, God fearing man.”

He jailed Bashir, from Chorley New Road, for 23 years.