DRUGS baron Richard Brookhouse will be subjected to a serious crime prevention order (SCPO) when he is released from his stint behind bars.

Brookhouse, who is currently serving 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to his part in the £100 million class A drugs conspiracy in February 2014, will face a series of restrictions after the order was imposed against him at Chester Crown Court on Thursday.

The 47-year-old, formerly of Coronation Avenue, Grappenhall, will be closely monitored  by the National Crime Agency in a bid to break the drugs kingpin’s cycle of crime.

Restrictions have been imposed on financial transactions, assets and possession of cash as well as travel.

If the dad-of-two breaches the terms agreed under the SCPO then he could face further time behind bars.

Brookhouse hit the headlines in 2014 for running a £100 million international plot that saw one of the largest police seizures of cocaine the country has seen.

Eighteen members of the smuggling operation were jailed for 217 years after 78kg of cocaine, 1kg of heroin and a small amount of MCat were recovered by a specialist police force brought in to crack it.

The conspiracy was organised while Brookhouse was on day release from serving a 22-year prison sentence imposed in 2003 for running a previous plot importing 60kg of cocaine.

Working closely alongside Brookhouse were Andrew Wilde and Carl Wall, who will now also have to adhere to a SCPO when they are released from prison.

During the hearing it was argued that fellow gang member Gerard Mooney should be exempt from a SCPO as this was his first conviction.

The court heard how Mooney was using his time wisely behind bars to make sure he can live a life free from crime when he is released.

But Judge Nicholas Woodward, who sentenced the gang almost three year ago, used Brookhouse as an example of why these orders were necessary.

He said: “You operated as the highest level of serious organised crime and you are an intelligent man who made a conscious decision to involve himself in the high risk business of drugs supply.”