A MAJOR victory in the war on drug dealers was being hailed today after Blackburn's Mr Big was jailed for eight years.

Ayub Khansia ran a heroin factory from a flat in Swallow Drive where thousands of £10 wraps of the drug were produced.

Today police said he was second only to the international gang lords who import drugs into the country.

The raid in which he was caught resulted in the discovery of heroin with a street value of £148,000 -- the biggest seizure in Blackburn for 10 years.

After he was jailed, Det Insp Ian Critchley, who led the investigation, warned the fight against dealers was far from over.

But he added: "The shear size of the seizure of drugs made Khansia a 'Mr Big' for us.

"He was one of the biggest wholesale suppliers of heroin in the area.

"The success in targeting him is down to a team of dedicated officers who have been responsible for other similar seizures of drugs."

Storeman Siraz Valli, 30, a father-of-two who rented the property and who was said to have played a "very much subordinate" role, was also jailed for four and a half years at Burnley Crown Court yesterday.

Khansia, of Tintern Crescent, Blackburn and Valli, of Swallow Drive, admitted possessing heroin with intent to supply and possessing counterfeit cash.

Sentencing, Judge Stuart Baker told the duo, who had also had fake cash on them when they were arrested, heroin led to crime and was a a "scourge" in our community.

The judge said the defendants had been in the process of bagging up the heroin into blocks and neither knew nor cared where it was going to or who was affected by it.

The court heard how ex-convict and father-of-five Khansia, 46, was the main man behind the sophisticated wholesale operation.

At the time of the raid, it was preparing to produce 15,000 £10 wraps of the drug at almost 40 per cent purity for sale on the streets. The defendant had already served three years for a drugs conspiracy offence.

Paul O'Brien, prosecuting, told the court that officers targeted the flat on January 25 after seeing Khansia going into the property carrying two plastic carrier bags. He was arrested after a violent struggle. Valli was detained after trying to barricade himself into the bedroom, the court was told.

Police found half a kilo of heroin in a plastic bag, paracetamol, electric scales, an electric mixer, latex gloves and tools including a socket spanner and lump hammer.

In the bedroom officers discovered a hydraulic press, still under pressure, with a kilo block of pressed heroin in a plastic bag. Paracetamol was being used as a cutting agent to dilute the purity of the drug, to increase its volume and make it go further, the court was told.

Mr O'Brien said in total police uncovered just under one and half kilos of heroin.

Ken Hind, defending, a former car dealer, said the defendant was a drug addict and became involved to finance his habit.

Mark Stuart, defending Valli, said the defendant got involved in drugs after going into a downward spiral because of depression and loss of work.