AS children, brothers Stuart and Iain Reid slept top and tail in a tiny room no bigger than a toilet in their council house.
The boys’ policeman dad had walked out on them and their four sisters when they were in primary school, leaving mum Jean to work six days a week in a hardware store to pay the bills.
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Growing up in Coventry, they had believed their bond to be unbreakable. But the brothers chose vastly different life paths.
While Iain joined the Army and later helped nail terror suspects as a Special Branch detective in the police, Stuart ran a £1.3million drugs empire, which landed him in some of Britain’s toughest jails.
When their dad William died in 2002, Stuart was under surveillance by police, who were mystified as to why a drug baron was at the funeral of an ex-cop.
Three years later, while Iain was investigating London’s 7/7 bombings, Stuart had just started a 12-year stretch for drug trafficking and fraud.
This week, the brothers met for the first time since their father’s funeral.
The Sun brought them together to tell their incredible stories — and Stuart, 63, vows he is now reformed.
Iain, 64, said: “I knew what my brother was doing, but I didn’t know how big he was. He was a major criminal.
“I was on holiday in Cuba a few years ago and a guy from Coventry was gobbing off at the bar.
“I happened to mention the name Stuart Reid and he went white with fear. It was then I realised what a major player he must have been.
“I was once called down to Special Branch complaints and discipline and asked about Stuart — how close we were, if I had any of his property in my name.
“But they already knew we were very different people.
“He had his life and I had mine.”
Stuart said: “He had to suffer the indignity of being put on the naughty step because of my behaviour.
“I would never have asked Iain to call in a favour and he would never have asked anything of me. We both knew better than that.
“I would never glamourise my criminal life. The cops will always catch up with you in the end, no matter how clever you think you are. Then they take your money and jail takes your life.
“I’m not looking for salvation here, but it’s the truth.”
While close, the brothers had very different personalities from the outset.
Dad-of-two Stuart, who still lives in Coventry, said: “Iain was a lot brighter and very arty.
I would never glamourise my criminal life. The cops will always catch up with you in the end, no matter how clever you think you are. Then they take your money and jail takes your life
Stuart
“He was creative and liked to go fishing whereas I hated fishing. I loved football and he hated it, but as brothers we were tight.
“We went to the same school and grew up in a room the size of a small toilet and slept in the same bed toe-to-head.
“Dad left when we were about five and six, so our mum Jean worked six days a week, but our sisters did all the nurturing.
“We were left to our own devices really and mum would never have thought of claiming benefits or anything like that to stay at home.
‘We were tight’
“Even if food banks had existed back then she would have been too proud to get help.
“Dad would come and see us and you would think him being a police officer might stand me in good stead, but it didn’t.”
In fact, William arrested and cautioned Stuart for handling stolen goods after he caught him trying to flog sportswear aged 13.
He said the turning point came when Iain, who now lives in Folkestone, Kent, joined the Army at 15. Stuart said: “We never had much when we were kids and as I grew older I got obsessed with money.
“I think that’s why I used all my skills and savviness to make cash any way I could.
“It’s strange that Iain and I have the same genes and had the same upbringing, but our traits are completely different.
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“He didn’t care about material possessions whereas I did.”
Stuart began his working life on the straight and narrow, despite using a local council loophole to open Eclipse, Britain’s first legal all-night rave in 1990.
The nightclub in Coventry was a roaring success. Stuart said: “I didn’t need to deal drugs when you could buy a bottle of water for 25p and sell it for £2.”
He also ran a music distribution firm, putting together CD compilations of dance music.
By 1997, the music scene had moved on and Stuart suffered a change of fortunes and had to shut Eclipse.
I knew what my brother was doing, but I didn’t know how big he was. He was a major criminal
Iain
He said: “It wasn’t much later that a friend called and said he knew a helicopter pilot in Scotland and asked if I had any work for him. Stupidly I got him some.
“I’d been badgered for a while to get into the drugs scene and I had a romantic notion that, because I chose not to deal in Class A drugs like heroin, what I was doing couldn’t be that bad.”
By the time cops caught up with him in 2004 — after flying £500,000-worth of cannabis into Britain from Spain — Stuart lived in a £750,000 house and owned four rental properties.
He gives a rueful laugh when he recalls how he was under police surveillance at his dad’s funeral, leaving officers “confused”.
That was the last time the brothers saw each other in person before this week, although they have texted and called each other since.
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Law-abiding Iain had taken a very different path.
After joining the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards, he served two tours of Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
He left to join West Midlands police in 1988 and was recruited to the Special Branch in 1990.
In October 2003, while his brother was still being tailed by undercover officers in Coventry, Iain was called in to examine the luggage of a Brit coming through the Channel Tunnel from Germany.
He discovered Andrew Rowe, 34, was in possession of a ball of socks found with traces of — in Iain’s words — “serious explosives”.
Iain, who served in the Intelligence Corps before leaving the Army, also discovered a secret code of random words next to phone numbers, which he sent to MI5.
It led to Rowe’s arrest and the Muslim convert, who had links to al-Qaeda, was subsequently jailed for 15 years for terror offences.
Rowe was also known to have links to French terrorist Lionel Dumont, who had converted to Islam after serving with peacekeepers in Somalia.
Escape plot
Iain was flown to Munich to interview the ex-soldier.
In 2005, Dumont was given 30 years for being a member of al-Qaeda terrorist cell Gang de Roubaix, which was behind the unsuccessful car bomb attack in Lille in March 1996.
Stuart is immensely proud of his brother as Iain recounts stories from his extraordinary career in law enforcement.
His own life of criminality concluded in 2014 when he was given 20 years for setting up a second drugs- running operation.
He was also given six years for playing a key part in a sledge-hammer plot to help another drugs kingpin escape from a prison van in January 2012.
Stuart had sent John Anslow, then 33, a coded message in a Christmas card informing him of the break-out.
Drug offences
Anslow went on the run in Northern Cyprus, but was arrested two months later and jailed for 22 years for drug offences.
Stuart was finally released in 2023 and says his years behind bars have given him plenty of time to reflect on his life choices.
He made an about-turn in prison and gained a law degree, and has written a book about his experiences, Ten Years A Cat A.
He insisted: “I’m a changed man. Being behind bars ended my relationship with the mother of my child and all the proceeds were taken back by police.
“In my opinion, criminals do what they do for financial advantage and ego. I’ve learned my lesson.
“In jail I’ve seen dozens of young men who have thrown away their lives in a moment of madness.
“They’ve killed people because someone lived in a different postcode or because someone looked at them the wrong way and now they are serving life.
We will always be brothers and we will always have that love and respect for each other
Stuart
“I’ve been asked to go into youth offender institutions to give kids advice, but I don’t think I am qualified in life to tell people ‘don’t do this’ or ‘don’t do that’. Everyone has to make their own way, just like Iain and I.”
Iain, whose memoir, A.C.A.B: A Policeman’s Story, details his career as a soldier and Special Branch detective, said he has never judged Stuart’s choices.
He added: “We are brothers and we love each other and that bond will never be broken.”
Asked if they will now regularly meet up, the brothers stared at each other before both laughing and saying: “Probably not.”
Stuart added: “It’s not that we don’t keep in touch or don’t care. But it’s just the way we are.
“We will always be brothers and we will always have that love and respect for each other.”
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