The 45-year-old was set to be released from an Amsterdam prison on January 7, but was held in custody for several days until SOCA officers arrived and executed a European Arrest Warrant.

He was then flown back to the UK through Heathrow Airport, and appeared before Manchester City Magistrate’s Court on January 18 when he faced the deception charges and was remanded in custody to HMP Manchester.

Woodford was sentenced to seven months in prison in Amsterdam last November after being found guilty of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition at the conclusion of a two week trial.

The arsenal of weapons he was linked to included a Belgian Fabrique National Carabine automatic rifle, an Israeli Galil light machine gun, a Swiss SG 543 assault rifle, a .357 magnum revolver, semi-automatic pistols and Browning Remmington 7mm ammunition.
Woodford was originally arrested on June 10, 2010, when the Quick Response Unit of Amsterdam’s Regional Criminal Investigation Service seized a group of six British men.

Four of the men were released without charged, although Woodford was held in special custody and later charged and prosecuted.

After the June 10 sting, the SOCA said the Amsterdam arrests may well have prevented a string of assassinations across the Dutch capital and that the crew’s movements in Amsterdam were linked to a Liverpool gang war.

Woodford’s crime story began in the early 1990s, when the Durham Mews West man was linked to a spate of vicious assaults in the city.

On May 12 1995, he was sentenced to seven years in prison at Liverpool Crown Court after being found guilty of a horrific attack on a Merseyside woman.

Nicknamed ‘Woody,’ he left the south Sefton crime scene several years ago to work in Spain, where he developed a new reputation on the Costa Del Sol.

Spanish authorities issued a European Arrest Warrant for him in 2008, and he was extradited from Holland to Spain and later released without charge.