Two men involved in a million pound class A drugs ring have been jailed for more than 20 years.

Faizal Hussain, 31, of Cranbrook Street, Oldham, and Rezwan Javed, 45 of Meadow Close, Burnley, were sentenced to a combined total of 24 years on Wednesday (20 April) at Manchester Crown Court for conspiracy to supply class A drugs, and conspiracy to conceal, convert, disguise, or transfer criminal property.

Greater Manchester Police's Serious and Organised Crime Group were able to topple the gang after their messages discussing wholesale amounts of cocaine and heroin on the encrypted network, EncroChat, were exposed following the take-down of the communications platform in June 2020.

The court heard how Hussain played a leading role in the organised crime group that was involved in the supply of multi-kilograms of class A drugs throughout the North West, as well as breaking down the batches of drugs into smaller amounts which were then sold on to distributors who would supply it to users.

Hussain was accused of being involved in the organising of wholesale deals, logistics and management at the level of regional supply, as well as being directly involved in the collecting and delivering of the drugs, too.

He's now been sentenced to serve 16 years in jail for his role in the conspiracy.

Javed was said not to have an EncroChat device himself but was estimated to be involved in transporting at least an estimated 9.6kg of cocaine and 14.3kg of heroin.

He was today ordered to serve eight years' imprisonment.

Lancashire Telegraph:

Detectives painstakingly trawled through thousands of lines of chat in the window of March-July 2020 that clearly demonstrated the group's prolific enterprise of collecting and regularly disseminating significant quantities of drugs from areas as far as Bradford and Birmingham.

Further evidence showed the conspiracy continued for a year after the rumbling of EncroChat as officers covertly tracked members of the OCG as they tried to continue their illicit trade.

Four arrests were made as part of the operation in total with 20 kilos of cocaine and 10 kilos of heroin seen to be supplied in the EncroChat period and, in July 2021, 14.7 kilos of cocaine was recovered at an address in Bury and packaging from 67 kilos of cocaine.

The investigation proved that the group were responsible for sourcing, storing and arranging the couriering of a total of 101 kilos of cocaine - with a value of over £2m - and 14kg of heroin - with a value of between £160k and £350k - that was ultimately being sold on the streets of Oldham and into Leeds, Birmingham and Liverpool.

Detective Constable Marc Walby, of GMP's Serious and Organised Crime Group (SOCG), said: "This gang thought they were able to avoid detection by using these devices; however they have instead presented us with a treasure trove of evidence that has enabled us to take this criminal group and their illicit enterprise off our streets and away from society.

"The quantities of drugs we are talking about here are beyond substantial and the removal of these individuals will have a tangible difference on the streets of Oldham and beyond as copious amounts of class A drugs will not be orchestrated across towns and cities around the region and beyond."