Dennis Alma Robinson was only out of jail a few years for drug dealing before he found himself back behind bars for murdering the Cooper twins.

Robinson was jailed for three years in November 2000 for his role in a plot to smuggle a large quantity of cocaine into the United States.

Robinson, a well-known Bermuda football player at the time and grandson of the late, great Island cricket legend Alma (Champ) Hunt, was caught in an elaborate sting after hatching the plot with his then Bermuda Customs agent girlfriend, Betty Azzario.

A New York court heard Robinson was arrested in 1999 ? but only after Azzario turned snitch.

Details of this conviction could not be reported during the four-week Cooper twins murder trial for legal reasons.

But we can now reveal that after a tip from Bermuda authorities, US drug enforcement officials caught Azzario red-handed boarding a Bermuda-bound flight at Kennedy Airport.

The drugs dog handler ? who had been on the front line in the war against narcotics ? had a package containing 3.5 pounds of Class A drug cocaine. That was worth $50,000 in the States, but considerably more in Bermuda where the package was bound.

The drugs mule also claimed the illegal haul was fake, but later confessed and identified Robinson as her accomplice, in a confession that left the prospect of a 20-year jail term hanging over his head.

An elaborate plot was then drawn up in which Azzario called Robinson at a Manhattan hotel and convinced him he should be the one to smuggle the drugs back over the Atlantic to Bermuda.

The talented footballer, who played for a successful Vasco team on the Island, fell for the sting and was arrested in the hotel lobby.

The court heard Robinson had recruited his girlfriend for the high-risk smuggling mission. His lawyer argued the defendant had made a ?stupid mistake?, but prosecutors said the defendant had a history of associating with drug dealers in Bermuda.

Robinson was not only a gifted sportsman but also a bright student. He was a high-flyer at Warwick Academy and excelled in the Bermuda Regiment before going to college in Canada, where he is believed to have studied English.

Details of their ten-year friendship are patchy, but it was during this time overseas at university that Robinson first met and became mates with fellow murderer Kenneth Burgess.

The trial heard Burgess kept a photograph of himself and Robinson from their student days in a photo album Police found during a raid on the Crown Hill Lane complex after the twins vanished. Another picture was shown in court of the pair at Cup Match, overseeing crown and anchor betting games.

Burgess told the court in recent years the two had not been as close as they had in the past. Prosecutors cast doubt on his suggestion that Robinson had only dropped into his Elliott Street gambling den about three times.

One of those visits, crucially, was to be on March 13, 2005, a night when he helped Burgess murder the Cooper twins, culminating in him transporting the bodies to Abbot?s Cliff.

The jury was told bloodstains must have been cleaned from inside the vehicle after this fateful trip, crucially captured on CCTV at a Flatts cash machine.

But like co-defendant Burgess, who left specks of blood in the Crown Hill Lane apartment, a critical blood smear was left on the van?s inside door. DNA tests later proved this was Jahmal?s blood, providing an important link between Burgess? murderous actions and Robinson.

In a cruel irony, the business logo on the side of the van read ?Robust Cleaning?. For Robinson, the cleaning may simply have not been robust enough.

Robinson ? who never actually assaulted the twins, according to the Prosecution, but guarded the door to prevent them escaping ? was arrested four days after Burgess, on March 22. Detectives had already searched the home on Palm Valley Road, in Southampton, that he shared with girlfriend Nekeisha Hayward, on March 18.

He did not give evidence in the trial and spared himself being asked the awkward question ? if he was at Crown Hill Lane when the twins were murdered, who did it?

The discovery of the photograph of Burgess and Robinson was mentioned several times during the trial by prosecutors keen to cement links between the two defendants.

Now the picture, etched on the minds of Bermudians, will be of Dennis Robinson walking down the steps of Supreme Court One, preparing to spend many, many years behind bars.