A DRUG dealer from Huddersfield has become the final member of a massive smuggling ring to be jailed.
Tahier Chand has been locked up for five years after police made 36 arrests during Operation Oak.
The massive crackdown was into a £1.5m drug peddling ring and has seen 36 gang members jailed for a total of more than 167 years.
In a hearing at Preston Crown Court, Chand, 34, of Manchester Road, Huddersfield , was jailed for five years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply heroin.
He is the 36th person to be sentenced in connection with Operation Oak.
Details of the full investigation can only now be made public due to reporting restrictions which were lifted following a hearing at Preston Crown Court.
Members of the drugs gangs who worked together to peddle over £1.5m of heroin and cocaine across the border in Lancashire and other parts of the country, have been jailed for a total of 167 years and one month.
The sentencing took part as a result of Operation Oak, a covert Lancashire Constabulary Serious and Organised Crime Operation into the activities of criminal gangs operating in West Yorkshire, Blackburn and Preston, as well as other parts of Cumbria, Merseyside and as far away as Berkshire.
They were arrested in a series of early morning raids in August and September 2011 after a major police operation involving hundreds of police officers from across the northwest.
During the various investigations which followed, over £1.5m worth of drugs were seized by police, along with over £200,000 in cash.
Det Supt Lee Halstead, of Lancashire Constabulary’s Serious and Organised Crime Unit, said: “Operation Oak has dismantled a network of drugs gangs responsible for the supply of over £1.5m worth of cocaine and heroin across northern England.
“It has resulted in the recovery of huge sums of cash.
“As a result these people, who did not have a legitimate income, led comfortable and in some cases quite affluent lifestyles, acting as negative role models to young people.
“This was at the expense and misery of other residents in the community, whose lives were blighted by the effects of drug dealing and associated violence in their neighbourhoods.
“This has been a large-scale investigation and we have worked closely with officers from our neighbouring forces and the Crown Prosecution Service.”
Det Supt Lee Halstead added: “Our planned Behind Bars campaign should now remind everyone that 167 years in prison is proof that crime certainly does not pay.”
Joanne Cunliffe, Crown Advocate from the CPS North West Complex Casework Unit added: “The fact that 36 individuals have been brought to justice for their involvement in the large scale supply of Class A drugs across the north of England is a testament to the close partnership between the CPS, Lancashire Police, Cumbria Police and other neighbouring forces.
“The message is clear: we will not tolerate the supply of drugs on our streets and we are wholly committed to prosecuting those responsible.”
