From today's Screws:
Cops were called in after the extortionist contacted the Man United star's management company claiming to have video and mobile snaps of him taking the drug.
Ferdinand, 26, even helped tackle the blackmailer by getting his agents to tape a phone call in which the man, called Leo, made his demands.
Then Rio told his men to pass the tape on to the News of the World's investigations team. We also recorded a conversation with the blackmailer in which he offered us the pictures for money.
Ferdinand—banned for eight months for forgetting to take a routine drugs test in September 2003—said last night: "I've never taken cocaine and I never will. That is why I knew immediately these pictures did not exist.
"My first thought was, ‘How can we nail this guy?' Premiership players and celebs have become targets for crooks like this.
"I felt that it was time to make a stand. I want this guy put behind bars to send a message to every blackmailer out there.
"And he will get his comeuppance, thanks to the work of my agents and the News of the World."
Conman Leo first called Man United claiming he had both moving footage and several still photographs of Ferdinand snorting the Class A drug from a table at a London club before the FA Cup semi-final against Newcastle United in April.
Ferdinand got his management company SEM to lay a trap for the blackmailer when he next rang them.
Speaking in a soft Scottish accent, the blackmailer told the agents he had "three pictures on a mobile phone and one video phone which lasts for about 60 seconds of Rio Ferdinand taking drugs.
"The pictures are fairly damaging, especially the video phone cos you hear him talking on it. You know what I want. You want me to put a figure on it? I'd say £60,000. That's what I would come up with."
Incredibly, the menace then bleated about how he was trying to protect his own young family. He said: "I would prefer for both parties maybe to come to a slight compromise over this rather than it go all nasty.
"There's two main priorities for me on this one. A: To protect myself and my young family and B: To make a few quid."
"Although it helps me financially, somebody suffers at the end of the day and it might not be Rio but he's big enough and ugly enough to look after himself."
Our team taped a similar set of demands in a call from Leo, a married Scot living in Islington, north London, who is known to be a heavy gambler.
He told us: "You can see Rio taking cocaine both in the stills pictures and on the filmed footage."