The Belfast man – who claims he was trained by legendary FBI undercover agent 'Donnie Brasco' – says he helped put hundreds of dealers behind bars and took millions of pounds worth of heroin off the streets.

Memoir

His book Undercover Cop hits the shelves today, and in it he details a career of massive drugs busts and conspiracies throughout the 1990s.

Paddy – not his real name – is only one of the assumed identities he says he has to travel under because he has contracts hanging over his head.

The father-of-two's first marriage collapsed as he spent eight years posing as a major player in the multi-billion-pound drugs trade.

Close calls

Carrying up to three passports at a time, Paddy, 54, says he's been kidnapped, interrogated, blown up and narrowly missed assassination.

"I'm not afraid and I've got no regrets," the stocky Belfast man says, seated in a cafe in his home city.

"I don't need a gun – a vegetable could fire a gun.

"I've been trained by the world's best. I could kill someone with a spoon."

As he speaks, he picks up the spoon that's been sitting innocently beside his cafe latte and strokes the handle.

As he holds the weapon, Paddy doesn't blink – he hardly ever does.

Is that because he's always looking over his shoulder?

No fear

"No. If I see someone on the street who I put away I'm not crossing the road.

"You can't be too paranoid."

Paddy grew up in the Ardoyne area before he joined the RUC in 1975.

Promoted to detective in two years, he was put in charge of the CID Surveillance Unit.

But he got tired of the team sitting round "playing cards" so decided to get them trained in covert techniques.

Training

"We were trained by the best from Scotland Yard," Paddy said.

"Special Branch weren't going to do anything with us so I went ahead and organised it."

Donnie Brasco

It was on the training he met Joe Pistone - arguably the FBI's most famous undercover agent.

Under the alias 'Donnie Brasco' he was responsible for infiltrating the Mafia in the 1970s and putting more than 100 gangsters in prison.

Paddy added: "Joe's a personal friend and a pioneer in the field.

"He taught me that if I was to run aliases I had to keep the lives completely separate.

Split lives

"My trick was to keep their lives in two separate briefcases, from wallets and watches to bus tickets."

Paddy's two aliases were gangster duo Sean Murphy and Billy Craig.

"I had a laugh at the names," he said.

His newly-trained team was sought by other police forces and they seized multi-milloin drugs shipments in Amsterdam, Turkey and Spain.

He eventually called time on his undercover life when international terrorists became involved in arms deals with drugs gangs.

"It was time to go," he said.

Full interview in today's News Letter.