THE girlfriend of runaway drugs boss John Barber has been arrested at an airport after she returned home.

Victoria Dudson was carrying the couple's six-month-old son Connor when she was stopped at John Lennon Liverpool Airport in Speke.

The 23-year-old went on the run last year with Barber after he absconded half way through a trial for flooding the streets of Bolton with millions of pounds worth of drugs.

And today her mum Christine told the Bolton Evening News: "My daughter still loves John Barber."

Miss Dudson was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender by Greater Manchester Police's drug squad as she flew in from Spain.

The former member of her boyfriend's legal team was taken to a police station in the Manchester area and questioned by detectives.

She was bailed to report back to the station in March.

Miss Dudson is thought to be back in Spain where she can visit Barber who is still fighting extradition proceedings and is being held in a jail in Madrid.

Her mother said she was determined to stay with the drugs baron.

She said: "She is a grown woman with a baby and can see who she wants. But she has put us through a lot of heartache over the last year.

"We never expected her to run away like she did. I have been prescribed anti-depressants as a result of what has happened."

Speaking about Barber, Mrs Dudson, of Stretford, said: "I had only met him once when he came to pick up Victoria and he sat in the car. I am aware of John Barber's reputation now.

"I don't know where she is at the moment - she is not living here. She is not in the UK."

The mother said she and her husband Ian had seen her grandson, who she described as "lovely". She said she did not think the couple had any plans to marry. The drug baron was arrested in August last year in a phone box in the fishing village of Sant Pol de Mar, 230 days after he absconded from Liverpool Crown Court. The couple had been living in a villa in Calella De Mar.

He was on trial for conspiring to supply heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine when he failed to return after the Christmas and New Year break.

Barber was convicted in his absence and sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Five members of Barber's gang were jailed for more than 50 years at the end of trial in January last year for their role in the running a multi-million pound drug operation.