ONE of the heads of a major hard drugs supply ring in East Lancashire is said to have made nearly £500,000 from his crimes.

Jail sentences ranging up to 11 years were imposed on those behind the ‘Don’, ‘Shark’, ‘Rambo’ and ‘Harry’ drug dealing phone lines were imposed earlier this year and late last year.

Detectives uncovered a multi-million pound operation, with cocaine and heroin being supplied from bases in Burnley and Pendle across the north west and into Yorkshire and the Midlands.

But a financial investigation by Lancashire Police found one of the ringleaders, Subhan Mushtaq, only now had £360.37 to his name. The benefit figure from his offending was put at £479,479.

In a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing before Judge Daniel Prowse yesterday he was ordered to repay that sum within three months - in default he would be given a one-month prison sentence.

Mushtaq, 22, of Pennine Way, Brierfield, was jailed for eight years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin. He was sentenced alongside seven others.

Ringleader Umar Hussain was jailed for 11 years last February over the same plot.

Police said in April 2022, a drug courier was arrested in Humberside in possession of five kilos of cocaine.

Further enquiries revealed he had travelled from Nelson with 10 kilos of the drug and had been directed where to go by Mushtaq.

The courier was given passwords to say and receive before drug deals took place.

Mobile phone records showed the courier had completed wholesale deals on cocaine in Hull, Birmingham, and Leicester before being arrested.

Prosecutors told Preston Crown Court earlier that the 'Rambo' and 'Harry' drugs lines, which supplied crack cocaine and heroin, had been controlled by Mushtaq from a safehouse in Brierfield.

Luxury cottages and high-end rental properties, costing thousands per week to rent, were used by the gang in a bid to evade detection.