THEY LIVED the Celtic Tiger dream on the proceeds of a cocaine and cannabis empire.

The children of 'businessman drug lord' Philip Baron mixed with celebrities and bankers and appeared in the gossip columns charting the love lives of the rich and famous. His daughter Nicola once dated tycoon's son Andy Quirke, whose brother Wes is engaged to former Miss World Rosanna Davison. But now the daughter of the major international criminal, who pleaded guilty to a massive drug conspiracy this week, and her brother Philip junior, have been dragged into the search for the prof-its of his international trafficking ring.

The Sunday World can reveal that the hunt is on for secret trusts worth millions set up by the Kildare-based drug smug-gler in the names of his children. And in a tale of two families, we can disclose how he exploited his daughter from a previous relationship, recruiting her into his evil business, while lavishing his second family, based near the K Club in Kildare, with all the luxuries drug money could buy. The 57-year-old Straffan-based crime kingpin, originally from Salford, Manchester, ran a criminal empire for 15 years from this country.

Today, we can reveal that he put a slice of the proceeds from international cocaine traf-ficking aside for his children, who were brought up as Celtic Tiger cubs in a luxury property at Bawnogues, New Road, Straffan. The money trail is revealed in financial logs and telephone intercepts secured by the UK Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and the Gardai during a lengthy investigation into the 'Baron of Kildare'. Baron, who presented a face f of total respectability and who sent his two children to private school in Ireland, was in fact a major drug importer who liaised with Colombian drug cartels and major mafia fig-ures across Europe to import tons of cocaine and cannabis into Ireland and the UK for the past two decades.

The Baron connection revealed a dramatic shift in the type of international syndicates deal-ing in drugs, according to SOCA officers. He started out in the legitimate haulage business, but quickly spotted that there was nothing to rival drugs as a transport commodity. "This was essentially a group of busi-nessmen who became drug dealers. It wasn't violent and each key person had their role," police sources revealed. Code "Losses were absorbed and there was a division of labour, much as you would expect in any corporation, and their sys-tem involved a complex arrangement of couriers and money men who spoke only in code." According to SOCA, Baron, his sidekick Walter Callinan and their associates acted like a board of directors.

Profits were divided like shareholders and consign-4 ments seized by cops I: around the globe were even put down on paper as 'losses'. The extensive investigation conducted by the Gardai and SOCA uncovered unprecedent-ed paperwork, logs of drugs deals and the massive profits being made by the traffickers. It also showed how Baron cruelly used his daughter Rachel, who lived in Manchester, while favouring his Irish children. In one deal, prof its were allocated and pre-pared for distribution and included a €2,000 fee that was kept aside to pay for Philip Baron Jnr's 18th birthday party.

The money paid for match-day tickets and a pri-vate suite at a Man United game. Meanwhile Baron cruelly exploited his other child from his estranged first mar-riage in the UK and manipulated Rachel into doing his dirty work, paying bills and laundering cash. "He treated Rachel disgustingly. When she had a child six year ago - his only grandchild - he sent over a skanky Salford drug dealer with €200 for a cot," a source told the Sunday World. Rachel (30), was also convicted and sen-tenced to three years in jail for her involvement in the conspiracy, but the court was lenient due in no small meas-ure to the manipulation of her father. "While Rachel was penniless, he was asking her to pay off bills with an American Express card, and to buy cars including a €100,000 Bentley convertible and a Range Rover on his behalf.

LUXURY:

Philip Baron's house in Straffan "While his Irish children, Philip and Nicola lived in the lap of luxury, his first daughter was smviving on benefits and the small crumbs from his proceeds of crime. He was just cruel beyond belief". Brains In an echo of Al Capone's demise, it was the gang's meticulous bookkeeping of profits and losses that became their downfall. Officers were able to link 'loss-es' in the ledgers with seizures of drugs by European and UK drug agencies. Callinan (61), who was the financial brains of the operation, also rented a property on the exclusive K Club estate in Straffan, Co. Kildare, through the Celtic Tiger boom years, and even used it to secure an ALB bank Account in Mullingar which was used to launder cash.

But it was 'respectable millionaire' Baron who specifically dealt with the notoriously violent Colombian cartels for his cocaine consignments, which he trans-ported from Costa Rica into Spain and then into the UK and Ireland. His criminal empire spread over three con-tinents and he lived a life of opulence until his extradition to the UK. Eighty-nine peo-ple were arrested in the five-year investiga-tion before Baron was targeted.

He organised a network of 12 virtual offices across the UK, from Glasgow to Cardiff, from where he would arrange for parcels of drugs to be delivered by main-stream legitimate international couriers. He was finally caught when months of police work recorded him giving orders for drugs and arranging deliveries in code which matched up to consign-ments which were found in the gang's financial logs. Other phone calls linked Baron to 'Dapper Don' Christy Kinahan and his bil-lion-euro Costa Cartel. Officers believe that both organisations cooperated to bring drugs into Ireland.

SIDEKICK:

Callinan Trusts He is facing a 20-year sentence, but has refused to divulge anything about the trusts which his associate Malcolm Carle is believed to have set up in his children's names in Eastern Europe. SOCA sources say that finan-cial logs relating to the gang's drug deals and intercepted prison phone calls confirmed the existence of the trusts, which were set up to benefit both Callinan's and ft) Baron's children. \ If It's understood that both Nicola and Philip Baron Jnr are in line to benefit, - but SOCA officers are keen to confirm that neither had any criminal involve-ment in any of one coded phone call, Baron advised an associate to destroy mobile phones linked to Kinahan's Irish Mafia in Spain.

Baron, who was known as '4X' because of his love of Range Rovers, regularly attended English football matches and the Ashes test series as well as attending black-tie balls. This week, the 57-year-old pleaded guilty to money laundering and drugs importation their father's activities. Baron's wife Elaine told SOCA officers that the children had been in contact with their father between 2006 and 2008 when he was being held on drugs charges in San Sebastian, Spain. Although Baron's current conviction relates to activities from 2008 and drugs importation into the UK, he is under-stood to have been active in the drugs world for two decades.

A case is already being prepared for the seizure of Baron's assets under proceeds of crime laws. With much of his wealth hidden, Baron was pleading poverty in recent years as he fought extradition from Ireland to the UK in a case which went all the way to the Supreme Court until he was eventually extradited in December last year. It's understood that his Straffan house is in negative equity and that his wife Elaine pawned off a €250,000 ring to finance his legal bill. He will be sentenced in June in Liverpool Crown Court, where a 20-year sentence awaits him despite his guilty plea. A recorded phone call from prison heard Baron lament that the evidence was so strong that "not even the Pope could get out of it".