CURTIS Warren’s criminal career started as a boy being driven around in a stolen car and rose to him being named in the Times Rich list.
Growing up in Toxteth he was used by older criminals because he was too young to be prosecuted.
As a bouncer he got into drug dealing when he saw how much money could be made.
Not a user himself, Warren built up direct connections with the Columbian cartels, soon becoming their man in Europe whose power was said to be such that he could directly influence the price of drugs on Britain’s streets.
He was put on trial in 1993 over an alleged £190m drugs plot but walked free when the judge ruled there was no evidence.
This led to him becoming Interpol’s “Target One”.
Finally, four years later he was locked up in Holland for his part in a plot to flood Britain with cocaine and other drugs worth £125m.
His sentence was increased to 16 years for the manslaughter of a Turkish inmate. Then he was convicted of running a drug ring from his cell but the conviction was quashed on appeal.
Warren made the Sunday Times Rich List in 2007 when his fortune was estimated at £40m as a “property developer”.
But the UK’s Assets Recovery Agency has only ever clawed back £3.6m. More investigations into his finances are now on-going.
