He married at 17.

Higgs was jailed for 12 years in 1970 for manslaughter.

This came after he was found guilty of being present during an armed robbery when another man killed the home owner.

Higgs was involved in the killing of two people over a drug deal involving undercover NSW policeman Mick Drury.

Notorious hitman Chris Flannery is believed to have shot Mr Drury in 1984 to prevent him giving evidence against his friend, heroin dealer and high profile painter and docker, Alan Williams.

Higgs also dealt with many Italian crime figures and at least one major member of the Chinese Triads.

That triad member was Philip Chee Ming Ng who was reputedly Victoria's biggest heroin importer.

Higgs and Ng travelled to Asia together to start up import-export businesses.

Police believe they joined forces to establish legitimate enterprises, which could have been used to launder drug profits.

Higgs, was a Black Uhlans bikie gang founding member.

He donated a clubhouse in the northern suburb of Fawkner to the club.

Higgs and close associate David McCulloch, were two of Australia's biggest drug barons.

McCulloch mixed with many drug syndicate bosses and other criminals, including convicted amphetamine dealer John Higgs and murdered "Mr Bigs'' Lewis Moran and Graham `The Munster' Kinniburgh.

In the early 1990's, Higgs branched out into legitimate businesses using the millions he was making from drugs.

He bought racehorses, dabbled in rock concert promoting and had interests in various companies.

Higgs was also involved in the abalone industry and race-fixing.

It has been alleged that he laundered drug money by betting on "certs".

He told a police informer that he approached a leading driver to pull his horse so a horse owned by Higgs could win a Geelong race.

Higgs claimed the driver refused and went on to win the harness race with Higgs' horse finishing sixth.

Police intelligence suggests Higgs had more success in other races.

They have been told he arranged for several horses to be given performance enhancing drugs before betting on them and winning big.

a close associate of Higgs was disqualified as a horse trainer and driver after blatantly pulling a horse in 1992.

The wining horse was owned by Higgs and a fellow associate of the Black Uhlans bikie gang.

Higgs often attended race meetings with fellow Black Uhlans members.

Another of Higgs' money-laundering tactics was to approach big-winning punters before they had a chance to cash their tickets.

He would offer them $17,000 cash in exchange for a winning ticket so he could take it to the bookmaker or TAB and get a cheque, thereby turning it into clean money.

But Higgs was unhappy with how his investments were going and bemoaned the fact to a friend.

The friend suggested a meeting with a contact who ran a very successful business and who would be able to offer valuable advice.

Higgs met this businessman for the first time in North Melbourne's British Hotel in 1992.

Over a beer, Higgs asked for help with some import and export problems at his Geelong fish-packing company.

That meeting changed the businessman's life forever, resulting in him becoming Australia's most important drug spy. 

Police have been told there is a reward of $250,000 for whoever kills the businessman.

It wasn't until 10 months into their professional relationship that Higgs, through a mutual friend, first raised the prospect of the businessman using his contacts to get chemicals used to make amphetamines.

The businessman suspected Higgs wanted the chemicals for illegal purposes and reported his suspicions to a National Crime Authority detective he was friendly with.

That detective was aware the Victoria Police drug squad had an interest in Higgs and arranged for the businessman to meet drug squad boss, Det Sen-Sgt Wayne Strawhorn.

Strawhorn told the businessman Higgs was a major drug squad target and he would be grateful for any information about his activities.

The businessman and Strawhorn established a good rapport during a number of meetings.

Finally the businessman agreed to infiltrate the gang and work as a police agent. 

He was given the codename E2/92 and sent to secretly record Higgs and his syndicate discussing drug deals.

He worked undercover for police inside the Higgs gang for three years.

E2/92 and Higgs are pictured right.

The criminal gang increasingly came to trust and rely on the businessman who was usually wired during his many meetings with them.

In 1993 Higgs was preparing for a big cook but he cancelled, telling his subordinates to suspend activities as police were about to blitz.

In another major drug investigation an undercover policeman was about to buy three machineguns when his target went cold.

The criminal moved to Sydney and would not deal with the undercover officer.

Clearly the job had been sold out from within.

Yet a series of internal investigations failed to discover the rat in the ranks.

Fugitive drug baron Tony Mokbel came on the drug squad radar in 1993 after an investigation into the activities of Higgs.

Higgs was getting chemicals to make amphetamines from "Kiwi" Joe Moran.

Drug squad listening devices installed in a building being used by Kiwi Joe detected a falling out between Higgs and Moran, and Mokbel and seized the opportunity to cultivate Kiwi Joe as his chemical supplier.

Drug squad taps on the phones of a Higgs gang member revealed Mokbel began supplying the Higgs gang with amphetamines almost immediately after Kiwi Joe fell out with Higgs.

Police provided E2/92 with huge quantities of chemicals to make amphetamines and kept them under surveillance as their informant delivered them to the gang.

He ended up having almost daily contact with Higgs and fellow gang members for three years.

Unlike most informers, E2/92 had nothing to gain by helping police.

While he had a criminal record for minor offences, there were no charges against him, or pending, when he agreed to the police request to work undercover within the gang.

"I was motivated to help because I felt it was my civic duty to do so,'' he said.

"I hate drugs and what they are doing to society.

"The approach from Higgs provided me with a chance to do something about it.

"But it was always on the understanding that I would only provide information and wouldn't be required to give evidence,'' the informer said.

Former North Melbourne football star Jim Krakouer received a hefty 16-year jail term after being caught driving a car laden with amphetamine products for syndicate bosses including Higgs.

Convicted drug trafficking ex-lawyer, Andrew Fraser later represented Krakouer.

(Click here for Andrew Rule's story on the connections between footballers and the underworld)

Higgs had grand plans to stage the concert to launder a couple of million dollars of drug money into $15 million of clean money.

American band Santana would be the headline act for the concert, which was planned for Calder Park Thunderdome over Easter 1994.

But the concert was cancelled and Krakouer lost his money.

Krakouer was supplied with amphetamines by the Higgs gang.

It was E2/92 who provided the Datsun Bluebird sedan that was trucked to Perth for January Krakouer in 1994.

Amphetamines weighing 5.3kg - with a street value of more than $8 million - were packed into 12 plastic bags and hidden in two front doors before the car left Melbourne.

WA drug squad members were tipped off by Victorian police and they intercepted the car before it reached the transport yard where Krakouer was due to pick it up. 

Officers removed the drugs, filled the plastic bags with flour, reassembled the car and sent it to its destination.

The Datsun was under surveillance as Krakouer and a friend picked it up and took it to a house in the suburb of Hilton.

Krakouer and his friend were caught red-handed, with police moving in to arrest them immediately after they dismantled the car doors and removed the bags of flour.

Victoria Police raided a Higgs gang property at Mooroopna in April, 1994.

They found seven tonnes of chemicals capable of making 226kg of amphetamines with a street value of $406 million.

Some of the chemicals were found on the truck pictured left.

E292 had a meeting with Wayne Strawhorn and Sen-Det. Sharon Stone at Preston Market in March 1996.

"Wayne said we had two problems,'' E2/92 said.

"The first was that police had received information that Higgs knew about me and was talking about having me knocked.

"The second was that a recent court decision meant that all police information reports had to be handed to the defence.

"Wayne told me that there was no way known I wouldn't be identified as a result of this decision.

"I had a few angry words to say, telling him to fix up his problem and I would fix up Higgsy because there was no way I was going to give fucking evidence.

"I rang Higgsy and got him to come and see me.

"I told him I had heard police thought he was going to have me knocked.

"He assured me it wasn't me he had been talking about and that he had no suspicions about me.''

E2/92 reported this to Strawhorn, but the officer pointed out there was still the problem of Higgs getting access to police information reports.

He suggested a meeting with lawyers from the Office of Public Prosecutions.

It was at this meeting E2/92 formed the impression that if he did not agree to give evidence against Higgs he would be exposed to the criminals as a police informer.

"So I said a few words, something like `Well fuck you all' and stormed out of the office,'' he said.

Sen-Det. Stone later calmed him down and set up another meeting with lawyers from the OPP in a city hotel.

In July 1996 E2/92 had further meetings with police from the witness security unit.

He said they promised to provide everything necessary to establish a new life overseas.

"I was told I would receive $500,000 on top of any re-location expenses incurred in setting me up overseas.''

It was only then that he told his wife of the double life he had been leading for three years.

"Reluctantly, we agreed to enter the witness protection scheme and for me to give evidence.

I didn't feel I had much choice,'' E2/92 said.

"But with a tax-free $500,000 on top of relocation expenses, I figured that at least we would be able to start a new life away from the dangers in Australia.

Detectives working under the National Crime Authority's Operation Blade reference nabbed Philip Ng in 1996.

Ng, 43, was the mastermind of what at the time was Victoria's biggest heroin importation

That is enough for at least 500,000 hits and at the time was the state's largest heroin bust.

It was alleged that Ng and several accomplices conspired to import the heroin from Bangkok in two lots into Melbourne between April and October 1996.

Operation Blade was a 1000-strong national taskforce with a brief to investigate Triad gangs and other Asian organised crime.

Police discovered the drugs had been packed into four elaborately carved Thai wall hangings.

They intercepted the wall hangings before delivery, substituted the heroin and inserted a listening device.

Ng and fellow gang member Wai Man Li, 46, were arrested after taking delivery of the goods.

Ng actually had the listening device in his pocket when police raided Li's Keilor East home.

The informer who first established the link between Higgs and Ng later told the Herald Sun the pair had spent a lot of time together.

"They were two people in a similar line of business who decided to pool their resources for their mutual benefit," the informer said.

Higgs was introduced to Ng by a corrupt local government official who was allegedly involved in helping Higgs set up legitimate investments, including a rock concert.

Higgs and Ng travelled to various Asian countries together and investigated setting up a horse feed business in Malaysia, exporting powdered milk to Vietnam and establishing a cab-charge voucher system in Singapore.

"Higgs knew a fair bit about horses because of his involvement in the trotting industry," the police informer said.

"Ng was well known in gambling circles and introduced Higgs to all the right jockey clubs in Asia."

Police were told that Ng had told a prominent Higgs gang member he needed help to launder $700,000.

He allegedly bragged that he would need that much laundered every week.

"Ng said he needed the $700,000 put through accounts in Australia that couldn't be traced back to him," a police source said.

"He then wanted it transferred to Hong Kong."

Ng also spoke to a Higgs gang member about having access to counterfeit money through a relative in Hong Kong."

Intelligence about Ng provided to Victoria Police investigating Higgs was initially passed on to the NCA's Operation Swordfish team.

Swordfish was a multi-agency taskforce set up specifically to investigate large scale money laundering, tax evasion and associated crimes.

Its members include lawyers, police, intelligence analysts, financial investigators and tax office staff.

Ng became a target of Operation Blade detectives investigating Asian organised crime after the Swordfish taskforce uncovered evidence of heroin importation.

Four years later Ng was jailed for 25 years with a minimum of 20, one of the stiffest sentences ever given for drug offences.

County Court judge Thomas Wodak sentenced Ng and also jailed Ng gang member and Hong Kong national Wai Man Li, 46, for 21 years.

The judge said he was satisfied both men were vital members of the conspiracy at a high level of the chain of command.

Ng had been found guilty by a County Court jury of conspiring to import a commercial quantity of heroin into Australia.

Li pleaded guilty to the same charge.

The judge said they were among a group of men who conspired to import the heroin into Melbourne.

Others were involved in the conspiracy, possibly having greater roles than Ng or Li, including one man who had fled the country.

Part of the conspiracy involved sending up to $2.5 million by telegraph to nominated overseas bank accounts.

Transfers were carried out predominantly by university students, recruited directly or indirectly by another man involved in the conspiracy, Judge Wodak said.

Li, who could face deportation at the end of his sentence, was ordered to serve a minimum of 16 years.

But Judge Wodak said he was not optimistic about rehabilitation prospects for Ng given his refusal to acknowledge his involvement in "a most dreadful crime''.

Neither man showed any emotion as they were led away.

A police taskforce, code named Sentinel, began an investigation into a break-in at the drug squad office in late 1996 in which files and evidence in the long-running investigation into John Higgs, were stolen.

In a 1997 committal hearing E2/92 gave evidence against two of Higgs' drug distributors, David "Deadly" McLennan (Higgs' brother-in-law - bottom right), and Ron "Strapper" Foster (bottom left).

They, along with gang members Donald "Dozer" Worcestor (top left) and Bruce Alexander Wilson (top right), pleaded guilty to drug offences.

Each received jail terms between 12 and 33 months, with the bulk of the sentences suspended for between 12 months and three years.

Higgs and Worcestor had once travelled to Amsterdam to arrange the importation of 150kg of hash with a street value of $7.5 million.

The pair also arranged to import 300,000 ecstasy tablets worth $24 million from a man Worcestor met during his time in a Thai jail.

E2/92 later said that on one occasion Burr and Worcestor once parked their car outside a coffee shop and in the 30 minutes they were inside, police took the car away and installed a bug.

"The only problem was the parking space was gone when police tried to return the car."

"So they had to park it quite a way up the road. When Les and Dozer came out they couldn't find the car and reported it stolen. Police came and found it for them and tried to tell them they must have forgotten where they parked it," E2/92 recalled.

"They immediately suspected something funny was going on and later searched the car and found a bug behind the air-conditioner."

Vince Mannella was shot dead at his Alister St. North Fitzroy home on January 9, 1999.

He had come under attention as a possible source of chemicals during the drug squads Operation Phalanx into Higgs.

Four years after E292 originally met with police, and "after Higgs and his gang were jailed as a result of my evidence, they offered me $350,000", he said. 

"That might sound like a lot, but it won't even cover what I have already lost in earnings and I don't have a work permit for the country I am now living in.''

At the time of entering witness protection E2/92 was earning $150,000 a year from his own business.

His wife had a well-paid job and they enjoyed a very comfortable lifestyle.

"We had just spent $70,000 renovating our home,'' he said.

"That lifestyle ended when we went into witness protection.

"That is despite entering into an agreement to give evidence only on the condition that we be relocated overseas and provided with a similar lifestyle to the one we enjoyed in Australia.''

E2/92 told the Herald Sun he had never been given permanent residency of any country in which to start the new life he had been repeatedly promised.

Former police officers were prepared to testify to witnessing the promise to pay him a tax-free $500,000 to set up overseas.

One of those officers left the force in disgust, citing the appalling handling of E2/92 and the drug squad break-in as the reasons.

Although police warned him his life was in danger they still refused to give him his tickets to fly out of Australia until he signed a written agreement that offered him far less protection than was verbally promised.

None of the documentation he needed to set up a new life overseas was ready when he had to flee Australia.

He had to find his own accommodation and pay for many of his expenses during six months of drifting round Europe with his family while waiting for police to organise a safe haven for him.

It was more than seven months before police provided him with a permit to work in the country he was moved to.

He had to leave that country because he couldn't afford to live there and still hasn't been provided with a work permit for the country he is in now.

Although police rang him after the drug squad break-in, they refused to pay for him and his family to take refuge in a neighbouring country.

He ended up having to pay for it himself.

He was not allowed to work while receiving a weekly wage from witness security.

He was having difficulty living on it, so opted out of the wage in January 1998 because he was assured his ex-gratia payment would soon be made and he planned to use it to set up a business.

Other than one $50,000 payment about 14 months ago, he was been left to fend for himself without an income for more than two years.

Police command rejected a plea for money to pay for therapy which he and his wife desperately needed to overcome stress.

Higgs pleaded guilty in March 1999 to conspiracy to traffic amphetamines.

He was jailed for six years.

As Higgs was led from the dock he told drug squad detective Wayne Strawhorn, "I'll get you.

Strawhorn would later be put behind bars himself.

In April 1999 one of Higgs amphetamines manufacturers, Leslie Thomas Burr (left) pleaded guilty too trafficking the drug.

On June 10, 2002, a report in the Melbourne Age said that managers at Fulham Correctional Centre in Gippsland had approved a scheme that allows prisoners to eat Big Macs in exchange for good behaviour.

The food is driven to the prison from nearby Sale, and had been described by prison management as an important tool in encouraging good behaviour.

Under the scheme, prisoners may order Big Macs, have a barbecue or order in food if their unit has had a month or more of good behaviour.

The prisoners are required to pay for the food themselves, and the perk appears to be less popular with some prisoners than others.

Records showed that Higgs, who made millions running Victoria's largest amphetamines empire, had spent just $4.10 on fast food since the trial began two years before. 

On June 26, 2002, the Age reported that an investigation had been launched after John Higgs, held an underworld meeting while on accompanied day release from the Fulham prison in Gippsland.

State corrections commissioner Dennis Roach had asked Australasian Correctional Management, the prison's operator, to explain how Higgs managed to meet former fellow inmate and underworld associate, Jason Moran, while on a 12-hour community access leave on May 23, 2002.

Higgs (pictured with gang member Brian Wilson) was due for release in January 2003.

He had been granted leave on several occasions as part of the prison's rehabilitation program. He was meant to be visiting his wife when the meeting with Moran took place at Higgs' home at Mount Cottrell, on Melbourne's western fringe.

Higgs' minimum security grading was upgraded and community access visits suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.

Authorities wanted to know how the meeting was organised and what was discussed by Higgs and Moran.

The commissioner has also asked ACM why it took two weeks to notify authorities of the breach.

An ACM spokesman said the meeting was reported to management by the accompanying guard. The delay in informing the commissioner's office was caused by an administrative error. 

"Fulham is operated within the rules and guidelines by the Victoria Government ... Higgs breached the conditions and his leave has been suspended," the spokesman said.

ACM, which also operates Port Phillip Prison, west of Melbourne, faced possible fines if the commissioner found management was negligent.

Moran, who was said by the deputy state coroner to have been present when underworld figure Alphonse Gangitano was murdered, was a long-term associate of Higgs.

The two became friends while inmates at Fulham. 

Prison authorities scaled back a 1999 Christmas lunch, paid for by the pair, after deciding the $2500 buffet was too lavish.

In September 2001 Moran was released after serving almost two years for assault.

In an unusual move, the Parole Board allowed him to leave Australia with his family because of fears for his life. He returned to Melbourne on November 20.

Higgs was released early in 2003 at the age of 56.

One of his first ports of call was a mid-week race meeting at Flemington.

Higgs was recognised and promptly "warned off" by the racecourse detective.

On July 12, 2007, Bulletin crime reporter Adam Shand wrote that his weekly column had heard that Higgs had quietly returned to Melbourne from a sojourn of 4 or 5 years on the Gold Coast.

Shand wrote that he was yet to catch up with Higgs but heard he had ended his junior retirement on the Gold Coast and was once again striding our streets.

Higgs reportedly made the pilgrimage north after being "warned off" Flemington racecourse.

"There were friends dropping in from time to time," wrote Shand. "Carl Williams was making regular trips up the coast with cocaine and ecstasy to sell, Fat Tony Mokbel was an occasional guest at the Versace resort, although it's doubtful he and Higgsy would have caught up. Mokbel stole $600,000 worth of Higgsy's pseudo-ephedrine, claiming it had been burnt up in a fire at his drug lab in Brunswick, (it wasn't)."

"Anyway, so Higgsy's back. It doesn't mean that he's back in the business, although the cynics might say it would be perfect timing. Two of the biggest suppliers of speed and pills, Williams and Mokbel, are out of business, and earlier rivals like the Morans, Nik Radev, Willy Thompson, Mark Mallia, Paul Kallipolitis and a host of others are dead."

"At 51, Higgsy qualifies as an elder statesman and will earn his due respect from the lags of Melbourne should he choose to assemble a new court down here."