A major drugs dealer has been jailed for 11 years after police discovered his deadly arsenal of weapons, which included a sub-machine gun.

One of Zahid Ali’s three working handguns had been used in a drive-by shooting, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Ali, of Victoria Mills, Salts Mill Road, Shipley, was caught with a £52,000 drugs stash, £8,000 in banknotes and a cache of firearms, including the Russian Baikal gun linked to a shooting in Manchester in 2006 when a man was blasted in the leg by an assailant leaning out of a car.

Ali, 27, had pleaded guilty to 11 offences, including possessing heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply and possessing prohibited weapons.

Judge Peter Benson told him the arms cache painted “a very disturbing picture”.

“They have no possible use except for intimidation, wounding or the murder of other people,” he said.

Prosecutor Stephen Wood told the court that police found the drugs and weapons when they arrested Ali at a house in Huddersfield on September 21 last year.

Officers pulled back an insecure bedroom carpet and uncovered a bag of drugs under two loose floorboards. More drugs were found in the kitchen, along with seven mobile phones, five sets of digital scales, cling film and freezer bags.

In mitigation, Peter Johnson, Ali’s barrister, said Ali’s friend, Jasem Asakerh, known as Mo, was murdered in 2009 and threats had been made to Ali’s family.

After the case, Detective Sergeant Damian Roebuck, of Kirklees Police, said: “I hope this result shows just how determined West Yorkshire Police is about keeping drugs and guns from the streets of our communities.

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