It did not take the Liverpudlian long to establish himself. He somehow gained the respect of the drug overlords operating in the city and began enjoying the party lifestyle.

He frequented lap-dancing bars in Amsterdam’s seedy red light district, where he is known to have splashed the cash.

The origins of Hailwood’s friendship with Arbroath’s Eddie McIntosh are unclear, but the pair struck up a strong bond.

McIntosh became Hailwood’s eyes and ears and they together formed a formidable partnership and began to establish a wider criminal network.

Hailwood’s ruthlessness and naked ambition saw him rise to the top echelons of the drugs trade in Holland — police believe there were only two other men whose power rivalled his own.

His reach extended across international boundaries and one of his gang — Jason Bowley — was despatched to Argentina to oversee the South American arm of the operation.

Bowley set himself up in Buenos Aires and a steady stream of young and desperate Eastern European men were sent his way as drugs couriers.

The Croydon-born linchpin arranged for the mules to travel to cocaine-producing regions — often in Bolivia but also in Brazil and other countries — where they would swallow up to a kilo of the drug wrapped in tightly sealed packages often bound by condoms.

Any leak of the extremely pure narcotic — which was often eight times as strong as street cocaine sold in the UK — could have been fatal for the carrier if the drug had entered the bloodstream.

That proved to be of little significance to the gang as they flew wave after wave of Poles, Lithuanians and Bulgarians to South America for cocaine pick-ups.

Former Dundee publican Leslie Graham was responsible for ensuring the drugs made it safely to their destination.

He and Polish peddler Lucasz Litwinski — who was living in Arbroath — travelled extensively in Europe and further afield overseeing the movements of the drugs mules.

The couriers then flew on to Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports where they were collected on arrival and taken to safe houses and hotels in Dundee, Arbroath and Fife where they stayed until the drugs passed from their bodies.

Detectives looked at data from around 70 flights dating back around two years — a total they believed was just the tip of the iceberg — and found that as many as three people associated with the crime group were travelling on each flight.

Each drugs mule is thought to have smuggled between half a kilo and a kilogramme of cocaine during each drugs run — a huge amount when broken down into street level deals.

Aside from Scottish airports, inquiries found the couriers had also used several airports in northern England as well as Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton airports in the London area, to bring huge quantities of drugs into the UK. Various seaports were also used to smuggle in the narcotics.

Self-employed Fife lorry driver Martin Graham — who often found his regular work took him to Amsterdam — was first linked to the Scottish crime group via a Fiat Multipla he bought in Arbroath.

The people carrier was stopped by police in the Netherlands with Hailwood at the wheel. The vehicle was confiscated but its driver allowed to go free. The Multipla was brought back to the UK and analysis of a pellet of cocaine found within the rear seat area proved key in linking Hailwood’s gang with a major crime group based in Lancashire headed by career criminal Ivan Hue.

The discovery of the wrap led to cross-border co-operation between Lancashire Constabulary and the Scottish Crime and Drugs Enforcement Agency and, ultimately, to the exposure of the wider crime group.

Crime king Hailwood was arrested and charged as a result of the ongoing operation.