£100m cocaine 'milkman' will die in prison

But in reality, the smooth talking gambler who boasted a celebrity lifestyle was also the boss of one of Britain's biggest cocaine smuggling rings who laundered his drug money by betting heavily on racing.

Nicknamed "the Milkman" he "always delivered", he was named as the country's richest drug dealer, worth more than £100 million, in a list compiled for the BBC3 series called Underworld Rich List in 2004.

Brian Brendan Wright was born in Ireland, one of nine children, and moved to England when he was 12, growing up in Kilburn, north London.

He gave up schooling and started working on market stalls, then landed a job as a croupier.

He also became involved in racing by taking bets for workers on the capital's building sites. Soon transforming himself into an apparently successful gambler, he claimed that on one occasion in 1973, early on in his betting career, he won £50,000 in one day.

His wealth afforded him a house in Frimley, Surrey, his rented luxury apartment in Chelsea Harbour, and a £2million villa - named El Lechero, Spanish for the Milkman - in Spain.

He held a box at Royal Ascot for 14 years, and gained membership of the exclusive clubs Tramps and Annabels in London.

He made the Conrad Hotel, which adjoined the Chelsea harbour complex where he rented a flat, his "office" and testified that if anyone needed him they knew to find him there.

Renowned for his charm, wits and hospitality, Wright always carried a roll of notes with him that "would choke a donkey", according to one jockey.

His racing acquaintances included the comedian Jim Davidson and the bookmaker Victor Chandler. Wright even boasted of meeting Frank Sinatra and Clint Eastwood. None knew that Wright was funding his lifestyle by running a global drugs network.

Giving evidence in court, Wright, 60, still claimed he had worked his way up from the son of Irish immigrants to a highly successful businessman.

His contacts with jockeys, racehorse owners and bookies, he said, together with a knowledge of the racing industry, led him to make at least £400,000 a year by the early 1990s.

Wright became one of Britain's most wanted fugitives after going on the run in 1999 when 15 members of his gang including his son were arrested for smuggling cocaine into Britain on board yachts.

He sought refuge in northern Cyprus, which has no extradition treaty with Britain. In 2002 Mr Wright's son Brian Jr and 14 other members of the ring were jailed by Bristol Crown Court.

Wright himself vanished from Cyprus days before Turkish police were going to arrest him at the request of the British.

In 2002, he also received a racing ban from the Jockey Club Disciplinary Committee for at least 20 years. Allegations involved the passing of inside information to Wright and others over a period of years.

In 2005 an International Arrest Warrant was executed when Wright emerged near Malaga . He was found living, according to Customs sources, as if he "did not exist". He had no bank account or car and was not living at his own address. His passport was never found.

Wright's appearance was unchanged and he had not adopted a false identity, but money was in place for his daily needs, Customs said.

Even after he was arrested, his love of gambling did not desert him: he attempted another cheeky wager, boasting that he would never be brought to trial and offering to bet £1 million against someone else's £1 that that would be the case.

But now luck has finally run out for Brian Wright.