FIVE gang members have been locked up for a total of more than nine years for their roles in an illegal operation supplying cannabis in Great Harwood.
The scale of the operation came to light after a police surveillance operation involving around eight officers.
Burnley Crown Court heard how ‘main man’ Christopher Reagan, 24, received more than 11,500 calls and texts on two ‘dealer phones’ over a 10-week period last summer.
Reagan was jailed for four years, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply cannabis.
He based the ‘hub’ of the operation at a house on Noble Street owned by his mum Margaret McGuire, where they both lived with her other son Jonathan Reagan and two other younger children.
Jonathan Reagan and co-defendents Layton Beech and Zain Ahmed were also locked up after pleading guilty to the same charge.
Accrington and Rossendale College student Brandon Scott, 19, of Windsor Road, Great Harwood, was also given a 12 month community order and 100 hours’ unpaid work for his part in street dealing after also pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply cannabis.
Nasar Kabel, 31, of St Cecelia Street, Great Harwood, was jailed for 10 months after police officers saw him delivering a ‘football-sized’ bag of cannabis to Christopher Reagan containing 37 snap bags.
He admitted supplying cannabis.
The court heard how Christopher Reagan, received supplies of cannabis, prepared drug deals and also personally sold it on the streets.
His brother Jonathan, 26, who was jailed for two years, was involved in a ‘lesser role’ by passing on Christopher’s mobile numbers, helping bag up the cannabis and on one occasion selling it to a couple, the court heard.
Sentencing Christopher Reagan, Judge Beverley Lunt told him: “The fact is you’re the main man here and others operated under your instruction and for you.
“You were very hands on in the way you ran this business, you didn’t just send others out to supply drugs, on occasions you supplied them yourself.
“Even if only half of the 11,000 calls were ordering drugs that is a significant amount of drugs dealt by you to them.”
The court was told the pair’s mother McGuire, 47, ‘knew the scale of the operation’ and at one point stood next to them in the kitchen washing up as the street deals were prepared.
Mum-of-four McGuire pleaded guilty to permitting her premises to be used in the supply of drugs. She was given an 18-week jail sentence, suspended for 12 months.
David Ryan, defending McGuire, said: “She was not herself involved in the supply of cannabis. She was either powerless to stop it or allowed it to continue out of misguided loyalty to her two elder sons.”
But sentencing her, the judge said: “This was your house and more importantly you had two other children in that house. They are the ones you should have been protecting.”
Layton Beech, 22, of Nelson Street, Accrington, was jailed for 16 months for storing ‘significant amounts’ of cannabis and was also present at one occasion when a deal was being prepared and supplied, the court heard.
Tool factory worker Zain Ahmed, 20, of St Hubert’s Street, Great Harwood, was sent to a young offenders institution for 12 months after being given a tupperware box full of cannabis by Christopher Reagan and within half-an-hour had completed seven street deals.
The court heard how drug user Kabel told police after his arrest that he got involved with the drug dealing to pay off personal debts, with his family owed £1,600 and friends owed up to £4,000.
His younger brother Yassir Hussain, 25, of St Edmund Street, Great Harwood was given a 12-month community order with a supervision requirement after the court heard how he drove the car for Kabel to deliver the drugs.
He admitted supplying cannabis.
