Blackburn men jailed after pursuit leads to drugs enterprise being uncovered

Four men from Blackburn have been jailed after a pursuit led to their drug enterprise being uncovered by police.

Aaron Osman, Mustafa Mehmood, Uzair Bhatti and Dahanyal Hussain were all caught in their crimes last December when officers signalled for a white Mercedes carrying Bhatti and Mehmood to stop on Johnston Street, Blackburn on 17^th December last year.

Bhatti was the driver, and as police approached the window, with the intention of conducting a search, Bhatti reversed at speed down the street, crashing into an innocent member of the public’s vehicle as he did.

Bhatti ran from the vehicle and was chased by one of the officers. Mehmood, who was in the front passenger seat was detained by another.

 Following a search of the vehicle a Nokia burner phone was found underneath the passenger seat and a cigarette packet containing white and brown substances was found in the centre console. Those substances were later proved to be 14 wraps of crack cocaine and 14 wraps of heroin.

Both Bhatti and Mehmood were arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply class A drugs. Following their arrests, searches of their home addresses were carried out.

Despite both being on license at the time of their arrests, they gave no comment to officers in interview.

Enquiries continued after the arrest where we found evidence of drugs messaging on the burner phone . The Nokia is believed to be the handset for the ICE drugs line.

An iPhone seized from Bhatti was found to have a vast amount of evidence showing his involvement in dealing drugs, including messages, voice notes, and videos.

It was whilst conducting these enquiries that police found a snapchat conversation between Bhatti and ‘Danny’ – aka Dhanyal Hussain.

These messages showed the two talking about class A drugs including a selfie of Hussain advertising drugs for the ICE line.

There was also a video showing Hussain’s involvement in packaging the drugs.

On 23^rd December, Hussain was arrested at his home, where we found the Canada Goose hat he was wearing in his drug-selling selfie.

A number of class A drugs were also found.

Police knew that Hussain, Bhatti and Mehmood had an upstream supplier. That man was Aaron Osman. They found that Osman was the one supplying Bhatti and Mehmood with the drugs that they packaged and sold on. Two mobiles and £2845 in cash was recovered from his house.

Following a consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, all four were charged.

Aaron Osman, 30, of St James’ Road, Blackburn pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine, heroin and cannabis and was sentenced to nine years.

Dhanyal Hussain, 27, of Whalley Range, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of heroin and crack cocaine and was sentenced to six years and three months.

Uzair Bhatti, 28, of Calder Banks, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply heroin and crack cocaine and was sentenced to four years.

Mustafa Mehmood, 24, of Earl Street, Blackburn pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of heroin and crack cocaine and was sentenced to three years and six months.

DC Warren Donnelly, of the East Targeted Crime Team said: “Osman, Bhatti, Mehmood and Hussain thought they could brazenly get away with their crimes – they couldn’t.

“This type of behaviour is not and never will be acceptable in our county. They continued to produce drugs and prey on some of the most vulnerable members of society just to make a profit.

“We will continue to crack down on organised crime and stop these criminals in their tracks.”