Milkman's run comes to end with arrest in southern Spain

A fugitive accused of masterminding one of Britain's biggest drug-smuggling operations and fixing hundreds of horse races has finally been arrested after six years on the run.

Brian Wright, 58, nicknamed "the Milkman", because he "always delivered" was seized in Marbella, southern Spain. He was tracked down to the Costa del Sol following an intelligence operation by Britain's Customs and Excise.

Wright is accused of being the head of a 16-strong gang running one of the largest cocaine-smuggling rings in Britain. It brought an estimated 360 million ($930 million) of cocaine into the country. The millionaire gambler is also accused of using drug money to corrupt jockeys, securing inside information on horses and fixing races.

In his heyday he lived flamboyantly, mixing with the rich and famous. The former borstal boy had his own box at Royal Ascot, a villa in Spain and rented riverside apartments in central London.

Wright was also investigated in 1990 over a series of dopings on British racecourses. The Jockey Club kept a file on him and, following a hearing in his absence, he was banned from race meetings and from liaising with jockeys and trainers.

Wright was betting sometimes 50,000 ($129,000) or 100,000 a time on allegedly fixed races. He bought a villa in Andalusia which he called "El Lechero" - The Milkman.

Jockeys were said to have visited him regularly in Spain, sometimes with their air-fares paid.

Wright was renowned for his charm and hospitality. One jockey said he always carried a roll of notes that "would choke a donkey".

In a police interview, Dermot Browne, a former amateur champion jockey, said Wright put corrupt jockeys on his payroll with bribes of up to 5000 ($12,900) a race. It was claimed that Wright and his associates were continually on the phone, milking their contacts for information, in a process they called "putting a race together".

Twenty-four leading jockeys have been accused of being associated with him. As well as celebrities and champion jockeys, Wright was closely associated with gangsters, including drugs boss Roy Adkins, and Charlie Wilson, one of the Great Train Robbery gang.

But his main income allegedly came from drugs. Between 1996 and 1998 alone, cocaine worth an estimated 300 million ($776 million) was smuggled into Britain by the organisation he is accused of heading.

By 1998 an international customs operation, codenamed Operation Extend, was closing in on the cocaine-smuggling network.

Customs arrested 15 gang members, who were sentenced to a total of 215 years. Among them was Wright's son, Brian Wright jnr, 35, sentenced to 16 years for importing cocaine.

In 1999 his father fled to Northern Cyprus and set up home in a luxury villa. He lived there for at least four years.

Wright returned to southern Spain and the Mediterranean resort of Marbella.

He was recognised and the Spanish police picked him up on an existing arrest warrant.

- Independent