The Scottish business, legal and political establishment is at risk of corruption by criminal godfathers who crave power and influence as much as wealth, a top crime-fighter warned yesterday.

Judges, police chiefs and politicians are all targets for drug barons who seek to rub shoulders with the great and the good, said Graeme Pearson, director-general of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA).

He was unveiling the agency's annual report showing 45 high-level criminals - the so-called Mr Bigs - were taken off the streets last year, a 73% increase from the previous year's 26.

Other successes noted in the report include the seizure of £7.5m of drugs, 190 arrests overall, and the seizure of almost £4.3m criminal assets, which will be put back into communities in Scotland.

But Mr Pearson said: "Organised crime is perfidious in terms of the way it operates. I go round the country looking at this. It is not simply the result of desire for wealth.

"Those involved are interested in power and control. That's where the taxis, the tanning parlours and the nail boutiques come into it. Having laundered their cash they want to be players in the community, getting near to people in business and getting power over them.

"If you look at where this has already happened, such as in Italy and America, law enforcement, judges, politicians have all been corrupted.

"Organised crime is here - if you speak to members of the public they know it is here. Cheap alcohol, counterfeit CDs and clothes - organised crime is behind it and the money goes into their coffers.

"The turnover of money involved in organised crime is put at £1bn to £1.5bn - that puts it on the same scale as a major company like First Bus.

"These are Home Office figures, out of a UK total of £25bn, and I think that could be an under-estimate. That covers drugs, illicit drink and tobacco, fuel fraud, fiscal and VAT fraud, human smuggling and counterfeiting."

However, Mr Pearson said he was pleased with the year's results, and praised the dedication of his staff: "The biggest problem I have is getting them to go home at night," he said. "I am highly satisfied by the work that has been done by everyone at the agency."

During the course of last year, investigators seized 77kg of class A drugs including heroin, cocaine and ecstasy with a street value of more than £4.3m. Investigators also found almost £2m worth of amphetamines and 378kg of cannabis with a street value of more than £1.2m.

Mr Pearson said that one of the key successes of the past year was the culmination of Operation Folklore, which saw James Stevenson, 41, sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow to 12 years and nine months in jail for laundering £1m from drug trafficking.

His co-accused Gerard Carbin, 27, was jailed for five years and six months and 12 tonnes of drugs with a street value of £61m were seized.

Mr Pearson said the agency will continue to target organised criminals and to tackle Scotland's drug problems through a combination of education and enforcement.

The agency is also gearing up to tackle the new threat of methylamphetamine, which is prevalent in the US and is now being used in England and Wales. The drug can have a devastating impact on people's health and producing it is a dangerous process which poses major health and safety risk. The SCDEA is monitoring the situation south of the border closely in case the drug spreads northward.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said: "This government wants to send out a message to these gangsters that there are no untouchables in our society.

"We will pursue them with vigour and we will be uncompromising in pursuing those who peddle drugs and other criminal activities."