MISSING Madeleine McCann could have been smuggled into the US by a paedophile ring with British connections, it was claimed last night.

An Angolan man who works in club security in the Algarve has told police he knows the gang who abducted the toddler.

He says the evil mob is run by high-profile Portuguese businessmen and lawyers, with international links ' including the UK.

Marcelino Jorge Italiano, 36, claims a number of respected figures in the towns of Faro and Albufeira are secretly involved.

He also alleges an Algarve orphanage has been used as a source of vulnerable children.

The 6ft 4in bouncer, who fled across the border into Spain, gave his dossier of information on the gang to police in Huelva on Monday.

He took a lawyer and spent more than an hour talking to detectives.

He told them: 'I know these people, I know they took Maddy, I can't say how. I have been told that they have grabbed a dozen children in Portugal and Spain because they prey on the weak and the helpless.'

A source said last night: 'Italiano has named names. He says he believes Madeleine was taken to the US some time ago and that the gang has the capacity to do this.

'He is positive they have taken many more children from the area and is convinced they are behind Madeleine's abduction.'

Italiano is reported to have also given the name of a London associate of the gang's leader.

Spanish police are now working closely with the Portuguese authorities to investigate his claims.

McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell, said: 'As with all such investigations regarding Madeleine, this man has done the right thing by going to the Spanish police authorities.

'They will investigate it ' as will the private investigators hired by the family.'

Madeleine was almost four when she disappeared from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, on May 3, 2007.