HE was just your average, everyday next-door neighbour – a father of two lovely youngsters and an adoring husband.But the cloak of respectability of Edwin Almond was smashed today when he was revealed as a Mr Big of the drugs world.

HE was just your average, everyday next-door neighbour – a father of two lovely youngsters and an adoring husband.

But the cloak of respectability of Edwin Almond was smashed today when he was revealed as a Mr Big of the drugs world.

Neighbours of the 32-year-old could not help but notice that he had several luxury vehicles parked on his property, in High Road, Trimley St Mary –a Lotus Elise, a Jaguar and a Ducati motorbike.

Little did anyone realise that the vehicles were stolen and inside his village farmhouse were more than 2,500 ecstasy tablets.

Almond, of Great Street Farmhouse, pleaded guilty to four charges including possessing drugs with intent to supply and receiving stolen goods.

Dressed in a dark suit, he stood impassively in the dock at Ipswich Crown Court as he pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing MDMA (ecstasy) with intent to supply on July 31, 2003.

He also pleaded guilty to dishonestly receiving a Lotus Elise motor car, worth £20,000 and taken from Hertfordshire on September 17, 2001, knowing or believing it to be stolen as well as a £7,000 Ducati 748 motorcycle stolen from Essex.

A guilty plea was also entered for dishonestly receiving a Jaguar XJR car, worth £20,000 and taken from Essex.

Sentencing was adjourned to December 5 along with a confiscation hearing.

Judge John Devaux also ordered that a vessel could be sold by Lombard Marina and the proceeds held by Suffolk police.

Until then the father-of-two with one child aged 18 months and one born in July, was seen as a quiet pillar of the community.

Few knew that this man used to live in a prison cell. He had already served a five-year jail sentence in Jersey for importing 1.2 tons of cannabis resin. He had been released a year early from prison in 2002, having served from 1998 for importing the drugs.

Police searched his home on July 31 and found proof that he was in the drugs business again.

Officers found thousands of ecstasy tablets, which they later counted and discovered numbered 2,550 – worth £17,850.

There was also drug-making equipment and other drug paraphenalia in the house.

Investigations quickly revealed that the two cars and luxury motorbike parked outside his home were stolen.

Almond had already been charged with money-laundering to the value of £257,000, in January last year.