Drug dealers lose appeal

Drug dealers involved in an £860,000 plot to flood Oldham and Burnley with heroin and crack cocaine have lost an appeal to cut their jail terms.

Kamran Khan (20) and Behzad Ali (29) were members of a seven-strong gang busted in Greater Manchester Police’s Operation Alamos and tried earlier this year.

Khan, of Laxey Close, Chadderton, was jailed for six and half years and Ali, of Belvedere Road, Burnley, for eight years in January.

Lord Justice Laws, Mr Justice Mitting and Mr Justice Walker, sitting at London’s Criminal Appeal Court yesterday, were told the men were treated too harshly.

The gang took delivery of heroin totalling 5kg from Pakistan over the course of a year from April 2013.

The gang had the packages delivered to addresses in Oldham and Burnley and used several aliases and couriers to cover their tracks.

Lawyers for Khan argued he was merely a “street dealer”, while Ali’s lawyers said he had been caught with just over 83g of drugs and had been jailed for too long.

Dismissing their appeals, Lord Justice Laws said in Ali’s case, the total weight of drugs that passed through the gang’s hands was much larger than 83g - and while Khan was only a street dealer, he traded a “substantial” quantity of drugs.