TWO drug dealers who supplied cannabis throughout Blackburn have been jailed for a total of almost three years.

Saajid Nadat, 22, of Pringle Street, Blackburn, and Moubeen Quddous, 24, of Queens Road, Blackburn, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cannabis at an earlier hearing.

Preston Crown Court heard how the two ‘intelligent’ young men had been supplying £10 bags on a regular basis to friends and acquaintances.

Hugh McKee, prosecuting, said that on May 21, Nadat and Quddous were in the car park of a business park in Blakewater Road, Blackburn, when they were caught by an undercover police operation in the middle of a cannabis pick-up/ Quddous was in a Fiat Punto and approached Nadat’s Nissan Micra with a carrier bag containing almost half a kilo of cannabis bush.

Police swooped and seized the drugs - worth up to £4,500 on the street when sold in two-gramme bags.

Nadat also had three mobile phones taken which contained text messages between the two and their customers.

Adrian Williams, for Nadat, said his client was a ‘heavy and consistent’ user of cannabis who had been ‘honest and candid’ about his involvement in a ‘small scale commercial supply’ which ‘lacked sophistication’.

He said: “His family are very much shocked. He is held in high esteem and is a genuinely remorseful and contrite young man who has brought considerable shame on his family who sit in court today.”

Ken Hind, defending Quddous, said his involvement came after his attempts to set up a car hire business in Leeds were undermined by an £8,000 bill after an accident.

Mr Hind said: “His remorse is reflected through his family and elderly parents. He is conscious of the stress to his family.”

Sentencing, Judge Anthony Russell QC, Recorder of Preston, said it was a ‘sad day’ to see two intelligent young men in the dock for serious offences.

He jailed Nadat for 18 months for two counts of conspiracy to supply cannabis, and Quddous to 14 months for one count.

Following sentencing, Detective Inspector Joanne Lightbown said: “Both Nadat and Quddous ran a fairly lucrative drug dealing enterprise supplying Cannabis throughout Blackburn for a nine month period, between August 2008 and May 2009.

“I am pleased with the sentence and believe it will have a significant impact on the supply of cannabis in Blackburn.”