George Buchanan - Edinburgh's No.1 drugs baron.The pug-faced body-builder keeps his sinister occupation secret from his middle-class neighbours in the upmarket estate of Gilbertstoun.But the father of two is to blame for most of the heroin, Ecstasy, hash and speed sold in city housing schemes such as Craigmillar, where he was brought up.Police sources yesterday confirmed Buchanan - known as Dode - commands the city's drugs underworld.But repeated attempts by drug squad officers to end cunning Buchanan's criminal career have ended in failure.More than £90,000 in cash was found in his home during Lothian andBorders Police's Operation Foil purges four years ago. Tests found traces of drugs on the notes.But furious detectives were forced to return the cash when a businessman claimed the money was his savings which Buchanan had been keeping for him.An earlier raid at Buchanan's previous home in Lochend, Edinburgh, uncovered another £30,000 in cash.But again, slippery Buchanan got the money returned when a relative claimed it was the proceeds from selling her home.Buchanan, 46, first came to the police's attention when he was a young thug growing up in Niddrie and Craigmillar.Hewas jailed for eight years in 1974 for the attempted murder of a gang rival when he was a member of the infamous Niddrie Terror street gang.In jail, Buchanan developed a passion for bodybuilding and by the time he was released the once-skinny thug had been transformed in to a muscle-bound heavyweight. One former detective said: "He was a wee nyaff before he went inside."But that all changed when he was released and he tapped in to the growing drugs market. He soon became a name to be reckoned with."In June 1987, Buchanan was jailed for 12 years after a jury found him guilty of being involved in the second biggest ever heroin haul found in Edinburgh.Officers who burst in to a house in Stockbridge found him in bed with the wife of his lieutenant, Raymond Smith.While officers detained Buchanan, Smith was being pursued in a high-speed car chase in which he almost killed young children in his desperate bid to escape.When arrested, Smith refused to co-operate - until it was pointed out by detectives that his boss had been caught in bed with hiswife.His evidence sent Buchanan away for 12 years - but not before Smith was repeatedly stabbed and almost died in an attack the night before the trial was due to start.In the same court, Buchanan was convicted of supplying heroin while he was a prisoner in Barlinnie Prison's special unit.But he was cleared of firearms offences and of a plot to rob Edinburgh jewellers of pounds 30,000.Ever the gentleman, on his way down to the cells Buchanan spat at the jury, for which he received a further sentence.Buchanan has never put in a proper day's work in his life but lives with wife Marie in a smart, £250,000 detached villa at Gilbertstoun, near Portobello.Naturally, the house is in his wife's name because Buchanan is careful not to have any identifiable assets that could be seized by the authorities.The cunning criminal is ultra-cautious in guarding his movements and even uses different vehicles depending on his purpose.When he visits his old stamping ground of Craigmillar and the other housing estates, Buchanan prefers to drive an old L- reg Volvo 440, swapping itfor a top-of-the-range Range Rover with private registration DDD 74 when he visits the gym.Known to have links to west of Scotland drug barons, Buchanan is a regular visitor to Glasgow to arrange consignments.When he is not visiting his mistress, who lives just yards from St Leonard's police station in Edinburgh, Buchanan can be spotted visiting a sauna in York Place and it is thought that he is planning to invest his ill-gotten gains in prostitution.A senior detective said: "George Bell Cowan Buchanan is one of the most active drug dealers in Edinburgh."He spreads misery in the housing estates which are in walking distance from the cosy existence that he lives out in Gilbertstoun.
"He is a nasty piece of work and it is only a matter of time before he reaps what he has sown."He has had a few lucky escapes but his luck will run out one of these days."