Ridouan Taghi, 41, has not been charged but is expected to face two separate mass trials in the Netherlands, one of which concerns nine murders and the second, involving a biker gang, three more

He began his criminal career at the age of 14 in a notorious Dutch biker gang called the Bad Boys before rising through the underworld to become a drug smuggler and, eventually, a hitman for the ayatollahs.

After ten years Ridouan Taghi was tracked by intelligence networks to a villa in Dubai from where Dutch police believe that he was organising assassinations for Iran.

In particular, they suspect he is the main link between Tehran and the murder four years ago of an Iranian exile who went by the name of Ali Motamed and had lived for decades under deep cover in an Amsterdam suburb.

Taghi’s alleged henchman, Naoufal Fassih, known to his associates as “Noffel the Belly”, was jailed for life last year for