The Birmingham supergrass who helped jail 34 of the UK’s most dangerous criminals’

Born into a Birmingham family of Greek Cypriots, the world was unaware of the man born Constantine Michael Michael, until he was jailed for six years in 2001. At Woolwich Crown Court, the now 66-year-old admitted conspiracies to import cocaine and cannabis, conspiracies to launder the proceeds and possessing a firearm.

By then, Michael, who rose from hairdresser to playboy mobster, had taken a wrecking ball to the underworld. His evidence had resulted in 34 crooks being jailed for a total of 170 years, 26 drug distribution networks obliterated and the seizure of narcotics and hash worth £49 million.

In a bid for leniency, Michael had even grassed on his mother, wife, brother and lover. Due to time already served in custody, he was released from prison almost immediately and condemned to a haunted existence.

According to the Daily Mail at the time, Michael and his family were in “enormous danger”. The danger has only been mitigated little by time. Michael is most likely travelling abroad. He has a new name, and possibly a new face. The overall cost of the witness protection programme was anticipated to be £2 million. That stratospheric feel initially included armed guards, a safe house, and new identities, but the family may now rely on a panic button to alert those in charge of keeping them safe.

His lifestyle will still be cloaked by extreme caution

That’s understandable. When Customs asked Michael, whose £107 million enterprise was built on cocaine, money laundering, and massage parlours, for a list of those who would want vengeance, he rattled off 14 names.

One of them was the Costa criminal supervillain Mickey “The Pimpernel” Green. It has been stated that he also offered information regarding North London’s Adams family and Kenneth Noye, as well as knowledge about unsolved murders.

In my nearly 50 years of crime reporting, Michael’s story stands out more than any Hollywood blockbuster. It’s Pulp Fact, not Fiction. He was a Mister Big who lived in a luxurious £750,000 Hertfordshire mansion. His operation allegedly included Colombian cocaine traffickers, the IRA, and Chicago mafia bosses.

His contacts were thought to include John “Goldfinger” Palmer, a Solihull-born criminal killed in a 2015 hit. Michael, who operated under the guise of a thriving bureau de change business, became wealthy by collecting cash from drugs smuggled into the country and then sending the money outside to buy more narcotics.

That filthy money was delivered by a slew of attractive couriers, including a Page 3 girl, who had no idea how much they were carrying or why the payments were being made.

For a while, Michael embraced the party lifestyle, fueled by cocaine and bubbly. The Guardian reported on his 40th birthday party, which was held at London’s Dorchester Hotel: “The highlight was the unveiling of a cake designed to reflect Michael’s lifestyle.” Alongside a brilliant red ’40’ were icing sugar reproductions of the three mobile phones he carried, his silver Porsche, the stack of £50 bills bulging in his pocket, and the Silk Cut cigarettes he smoked on a regular basis.”

Michael was also a five-star informant, providing valuable information to MI5, the Inland Revenue, and the police. He thought it was his security blanket. He was wrong. A senior detective praised him as “one of the best, if not the best informant ever.”Providing information about some of the most notorious British criminals operating”.

The mistake the mastermind made was to allow The Organisation to become too big to be ignored

On April 25, 1998, Customs authorities searched Michael’s residence, seizing £800,000 in cash and documentation exposing cocaine smuggling operations. The state’s measures to keep Michael safe following his detention highlighted the peril he faced. Officers with guns stood guard at Woolwich Crown Court. His meals were poison-tested while he was in Belmarsh Prison’s segregation section.

Somewhere, probably thousands of miles away, Michael toasted the New Year. He will have more reason than others to want a safe one. But here’s something to consider. The mystery figure in your block – a kind chap who stays to himself – could be Britain’s largest supergrass.