Robert Dawes, 39, from Sutton-in-Ashfield, is alleged to have run a criminal gang which flooded Britain with millions of pounds worth of cocaine, heroin and cannabis. He is now being held in Spain pending prosecution in the next few months in Madrid.
In a statement released this week, the Spanish Civil Guard says Dawes is alleged to have used Spain as a "springboard for trafficking drugs to several European countries", mostly Britain. They describe him as "the boss of an important English drug trafficking organisation".
Dawes was targeted in a joint operation between the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), the Spanish Civil Guard's elite Central Operative Unit, in Madrid, and Belgian police.
The Civil Guard said he was one of 22 people arrested in four countries as part of the operation. Nine were held in the UK, eight in Spain, four in Belgium and one in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The statement says that, as a result of the operation, officers seized millions of pounds worth of drugs, including 5.7 tons of cannabis resin, 100 kilos of heroin and 210 kilos of cocaine. They also recovered four firearms, property worth £5.4 million and £90,000 in cash.
Dawes was extradited from Dubai to Spain two weeks ago after completing a jail sentence for money-laundering.
The Civil Guard say they believe he continued to run his drug-smuggling operation from his prison cell in the United Arab Emirates despite being jailed in 2008.
They began investigating the gang in 2006 and discovered that Dawes was the alleged boss in 2007, during a police operation codenamed Halbert.
Dawes, who lived on the Mijas Costa in southern Spain, fled to the UAE after police arrested several of his alleged associates.
Spanish police passed information on to their counterparts in the UAE and he was arrested there in June 2008 for money-laundering.
He was re-arrested on an international warrant in Dubai last month after serving his sentence. He was flown to Madrid, where he was remanded in custody by an investigating magistrate.
He remains there awaiting his next court hearing.
Dawes has previously been named in British court papers from the Serious Organised Crime Agency as "a highly significant international criminal" wanted in three countries, including the UK and Holland.
In Holland, he is under investigation in connection with the 2002 murder of teacher Gerard Meesters, shot outside his home in Groningen.
British police are also said to want to interview him about the unsolved murder of father-of-two David Draycott, who was shot at his home in Sutton-in-Ashfield in 2002.
Last month, three Britons were jailed for almost 25 years at a court in Madrid after police seized £22 million worth of cocaine which Dawes had allegedly arranged to be transported from Spain to the UK.
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