A former barrow boy who became Scotland's biggest heroin wholesaler, was yesterday jailed for 13 years.

Undercover detectives caught David Santini, 30, cutting #1.1m of heroin when they raided a tenement flat in Scotstoun, Glasgow.

Also captured in the police operation was Chris McCall, 31, said to be one of Scotland's major heroin retailers, who supplied a string of street dealers.

He was also jailed yesterday for 13 years by Lord McCluskey at the High Court in Glasgow.

Three of their underlings, James Faulkner, 55, of Lochgoin Avenue, Drumchapel, his brother George, 39, of Earl Street, Scotstoun, and John Carroll, of Dumbarton Road, also Scotstoun, were also arrested.

George Faulkner was jailed for 12 years and James was jailed for eight years. Carroll, who allowed his home to be used to store the drugs, was jailed for seven years.

Santini and Carroll were found guilty yesterday after a six-day trial of possessing heroin with intent to supply on June 26 this year. The four others pleaded guilty earlier.

The drug seizure, the third biggest ever in Scotland, plunged Scotland's heroin market into chaos.

Within days, hundreds of desperate addicts were combing the streets searching for non-existent supplies.

The case was a triumph for the Scottish Crime Squad and Strathclyde's drug squad whose undercover detectives videoed their raid on Carroll's flat in Dumbarton Road.

The jury saw the moment the flat's front door was forced open with a hydraulic battering ram. They watched as jubilant detectives escorted Santini from the kitchen.

He still had on the rubber gloves stained by brown heroin which he had worn to protect his hands.

That dramatic moment was the end of the road for the Glasgow businessman whose empire, including a wholesale fruit, vegetable and florist business, 20 greengrocer shops, pubs, and restaurants, was a front for his drug dealing.

A Scottish Crime Squad spokesman said: ''A major network of drug dealers headed by David Santini, involved in the distribution of large quantities of heroin throughout Scotland, has been successfully tackled.

''This should sound out a clear message to others involved in this evil trade and to anyone who might take over now that David Santini and his organisation have been deposed.''

Now the hunt is on to trace and confiscate the profits made by the two drugs barons from the misery of countless thousands of addicts over the years.

After yesterday's verdict Santini, of Oakdene Avenue, Newarthill, Lanarkshire, was served an official notice by the Crown detailing #250,000 of assets they intend to seize.

These include business interests, two series 7 BMW cars, and #17,000 in cash found in his bedroom.

This may be just part of Santini's ill-gotten gains.

A detective said: ''The hunt to trace Santini's assets could take years and could involve millions, much of it salted away abroad. But we are determined to get them.''

The Inland Revenue will also put the spotlight on Santini because he admitted in court that he paid no personal income tax.

McCall was also served an official notice detailing the clawback of his home in Meikleburn Brae, Lennoxtown, his Shogun four wheel drive vehicle, an Escort Cosworth, jet skis, and his boat on Loch Lomond.

The total amounts to #100,000.

During the trial, Santini told how as a boy he worked after school and at weekends to save money hoping to open a business.

When he left school he worked as a barrow boy for his uncle and by the time he was 16 he opened his first fruit and vegetable shop in Main Street, Kirkintilloch.

By 1994 he had built up a retail shops empire with 20 outlets, a wholesale vegetable business in the Blochairn Fruit Market in Glasgow, restaurants in Paisley and Glasgow, a public house, and a fish and chip shop.

He also had two stalls in the Barras in Glasgow from which sold liquidated stock.

Santini got out of the retail business and started a business buying and selling at least three or four cars a week.

He still employed street traders selling items, such as perfume, in city and town centres.

Santini admitted it was a cash rich business and he said the #17,000 found in his house was a float for buying cars.

He claimed that when he went to the house at Dumbarton Road he was just accompanying his friend McCall.

Santini spoke of his amazement when he saw the kitchen full of heroin, and having smoked it occasionally, decided to have some.

He put on a pair of rubber gloves he found in the kitchen and was terrified when a bunch of strangers burst in and grabbed him. He did not realise they were police.

Cross-examined by Scott Brady prosecuting, Santini denied that his greed to make more money from the evil trade in drugs got the better of him.

Mr Brady accused him of having the ideal business and contacts to deal in the drug trade, particularly when fruit, vegetables and flowers came from countries in the Middle East and also Holland.

The court heard that just nine days before he was arrested, Santini and McCall flew with two other men to Amsterdam.