The thug's "drug mules" deliberately get sent to jail to act as his enforcers on the inside, while he uses mobile phones to co-ordinate his gang on the streets.
We revealed this week how he was moved from a cushy open prison back to Shotts in Lanarkshire as police bid to smash his massive drugs empire.
Despite his setback, underworld sources claim the 46-year-old kingpin is still very much the "chairman of the board", raking in millions from dealing coke, heroin and valium inside Scotland's jails.
Stevenson, of Burnside, Glasgow, used the lax regime at Noranside in Angus to organise a network of drug dealers to infiltrate Barlinnie, Shotts and Glenochil.
During his three-month stay in the cushy open set-up, he had access to four different mobile phones to conduct his business. He also met key lieutenants to co-ordinate his drugs operation while out on home leave.
Last night, a source said: "Stevenson is now the main man behind all the drugs getting into the country's biggest jails.
"It was a dream come true for him when he got sent to Noranside in April because it meant he could lay the groundwork for his massive behind-bars drugs operation and it's being run like clockwork.
"He's not happy being back in Shotts but he is still the 'chairman of the board' and the most feared crime boss in Scotland.
"He will have access to a mobile and continue to control his empire and make a fortune from his network of drug dealers who carry made-to-order drugs into jails."
Stevenson was jailed in 2007 for laundering s1million of drugs cash. A year later, the crook was ordered by the courts to hand over nearly s750,000 of his criminal profits.
He was snared along with his stepson Gerry Carbin, whose dad was late drug dealer Gerry "Cyclops" Carbin, in Operation Folklore, which seized more than 12 tons of drugs worth more than s61million.
Carbin, 31, was freed last year after serving less than three-and-a-half years of his five-and-a-half-year sentence.
Sources say that Carbin continues to work for his stepdad and is helping him mastermind the operation from the outside. An insider said: "Carbin is still in the thick of it but is keeping a very low profile as he knows the cops will be watching his every move.
"Stevenson has a network of drug dealers who are repeat offenders prepared to get jailed for breaches of the peace and shoplifting so they can infiltrate prisons and get orders.
"They get a list of those who want coke, heroin or valium and phone numbers for friends or relatives on the outside who are willing to pay for the drugs.
"Arrangements are made for a meeting and, after payment is made, the team of couriers who are due to be jailed for minor offences take in the drugs, hidden in their rear ends.
"Because these guys are not in for drugs offences, they won't be strip searched. When they get into jail, they look up their order book and deliver the drugs to the right cell., This process is called 'send-ons'."
Earlier this month, the Record told how elite cops from the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency had spent a year tracking Stevenson's gang in an operation codenamed Chilon.
The day after Stevenson returned to Noranside from his first home visit, they staged a series of raids aimed at his key lieutenants.
Nine men were detained in swoops on 11 homes in Glasgow and Lanarkshire, including trucking boss Charles McAughey who is linked to the biggest cocaine bust in French history.
Last night, the SCDEA said a report on the raids was being prepared for the procurator fiscal.
In 2009, our sister paper the Sunday Mail revealed that French police had found nearly three-quarters of a ton of cocaine in the back of a lorry owned by McAughey.
The vehicle was registered to the 51-year-old, who runs haulage company Kirimar Plant.
He employed the two Glaswegian men arrested in the bust in the Montpellier.
Stunned French cops found 684kilos of pure cocaine, worth s31million, hidden in the back of the truck. The lorry was scheduled to travel to London then Glasgow.
Police said they would be reported to the fiscal for "offences under the Proceeds of Crime Act and money-laundering".
Two other men, including Stevenson's top lieutenant, are still being hunted. The cops seized s40,000 in cash, 21 laptops, 60 mobile phones, jewellery, watches, shoes, paintings and paperwork on property and land assets.
Police believe that, out of 360 crime gangs in Scotland, Stevenson's group pose "the highest threat".
Detective Chief Inspector Jim Kerr, who led this month's raids, said the mob were the SCDEA's No1 target.
Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Mole, head of investigations at the SCDEA, said the raids were the "big wash-up" at the end of Operation Chilon.
The investigation led to the seizure of 15kilos of cocaine worth s5million.
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