Two men involved in a cocaine and heroin conspiracy which resulted in £13,000 worth of drugs being seized were caught out after officers detected the smell of cannabis coming from one of their cars.

In November last year, officers spotted a vehicle parked up in Derby Street in Blackburn and could smell cannabis coming from the vehicle.

Preston Crown Court heard the officers approached the car and found that Tahir Shah was the driver, and an unknown male passenger.

Prosecuting, Gurdit Singh said one of the PCs asked for Shah’s details, but he provided a false name.

He said: “The PC saw he had two mobile phones on him, one a Samsung and one a Nokia burner type phone, which was constantly ringing.

“The officer could also see a man bag in the central console, which was searched, and several individual wraps of white and brown powder found.

“There was also a large sum of cash notes in the vehicle.”

The police attempted to arrest Shah, but he resisted and shoved and pushed one of the officers before running off.

His passenger also ran from the scene.

Mr Singh said upon conducting a full search of the vehicle, police recovered £720 in cash and more snap bags of suspected drugs as well as a debit card with Shah’s real name on it.

Three days later the burner phone was found in pieces on Derby Street by a PCSO, with analysis showing that the device was connected to the Casper drug line, and text messages revealed conversations relating to the supply of drugs.

The Samsung phone was also analysed and contained a number of messages relating to drug supply, with several sent between Shah and his co-defendant, Adnan Khalil.

Mr Singh went on: “On February 2, officers attended Khalil’s address and found various items and tubs containing drugs, as well as items relating to the supply of drugs.”

In total, police recovered around 102g of crack cocaine from Khalil’s address, 4g of cocaine, and 37g of heroin, with an estimated street value of more than £13,000.

Both men were arrested, with Shah arrested while in HMP Preston after he had been recalled to prison for breaching a suspended sentence order the month before. They both provided no comment in interview.

Khalil, 33, of Blackburn Road, Darwen, has no previous convictions, and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

Shah, 32, of Rosewood Avenue, Blackburn, has seven convictions for 24 offences and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs as well as assault by beating of an emergency worker.

Khalil was jailed for two years and 9 months, and Shah was jailed for five years and six months.

A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing will take place next year.

Khalil and Shah’s convictions formed part of a police investigation labelled Operation Bishop, in which several other defendants are still to be sentenced, although their involvement is in relation to a class B conspiracy.