Bill Hughes is the current head of the National Crime Squad

Bill Hughes - the man chosen to head the UK's planned new FBI-style agency - is one of Britain's most senior police officers.

In January 2001, he was appointed director general of the National Crime Squad (NCS) which is charged with tackling organised and serious crime.

The 53-year-old is in charge of 1,300 detectives investigating crimes ranging from paedophile rings to drug smugglers and international people trafficking gangs.

Over the last year alone, the squad has removed some 33,000kg of drugs from Britain's streets, seized more than �3.7m worth of criminal assets and dismantled more than 290 serious criminal enterprises, the home office says.

Mr Hughes has a well-deserved reputation for coming down hard on corruption.

Web crime

Within four months of arriving at the NCS he oversaw the expulsion of 61 allegedly corrupt officers.

The squad monitors the bank balances of its own detectives for suspicious transactions and uses undercover officers to test their integrity.

And Mr Hughes has been a pioneer in the fight against internet-based crime. The squad's own hi-tech crime fighting unit was created under his leadership.

But Mr Hughes is no fast-track, career policemen.

He was a crash-safety engineer with car firm British Leyland before joining the police in Thames Valley in 1975.

Police medal

He rose through the ranks to become Assistant Chief Constable in West Yorkshire Police from 1991 to 1997.

He then served as Deputy Chief Constable in Hertfordshire from 1997 to 2000 before being joining the National Crime Squad.

Mr Hughes is a member of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) and heads the delegation of European Police Chiefs Task Force.

He was recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in 2001 and awarded the Queen's Police Medal.