A CONTRACT killer who murdered an ex-professional rugby player and another man was last night revealed as the man behind a massive North-East drugs racket.

Paul Bryan, 41, received two life sentences at Leeds Crown Court on Monday for gunning down former Sheffield Eagles player David Nelson and his friend, Joseph Montgomery, last year. The 41-year-old, who claimed in court that Middlesbrough mayor Ray Mallon had forced him to sell drugs, also received ten years for the attempted murder of Mr Nelson's brother, Andrew.

Yesterday, it emerged that Bryan was convicted of drug trafficking offences at Teesside Crown Court in February.

He will shortly be sentenced along with six other men also convicted of drugs offences, including his brother, Andrew, 36, of Wordsworth Road, Eston.

A court order meant none of the convictions could be reported until Bryan's trial in Leeds had finished.

He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A and B drugs, including heroin, cannabis, amphetamines and cannabis between 1998 and 2000, after the National Crime Squad uncovered his lucrative network.

The squad's Hambleton branch carried out a two-year investigation - code-named Operation Casper - into the gang, which operated mainly in Middlesbrough, Redcar and Darlington, and arranged supplies to Northampton and Leeds.

Bryan was at the gang's helm posing as a car salesman.

Detective Chief Inspector Dave Wright, of the National Crime Squad, said the "highly organised" scam was uncovered after officers planted a listening device at Bryan's Eston home