Curtis Warren

Curtis Francis Warren (also known as Cocky; born 31 May 1963) is an English gangster and drugs trafficker who was formerly Interpol's Target One and was once listed on The Sunday Times Rich List.

Curtis Warren is the second son of South American born Curtis Aloysius Warren, a seaman with the Norwegian Merchant Navy, and Antonia Chantre, the daughter of a shipyard boiler attendant.

He grew up with his elder brother Ramon and sister Maria in Toxteth, Liverpool.

After Warren was released from jail, local police commented that he had turned his life around, working as a bouncer at a Liverpool nightclub.

But it was here that he learnt about the drugs trade, as bouncers have the power to control who comes in and out of a venue.

He was able to control dealers' access and then befriend them, giving him an inside education.

In the late 1980s, he came to a working agreement with Middlesbrough businessman Brian Charrington.

In September 1991, using Charrington's personal yacht, the two men sailed to France on then-legal British visitor passports.

They then travelled to Venezuela on British 10-year passports, and arranged a deal with the Cali cartel to smuggle cocaine in steel boxes, concealed in lead ingots.

On arrival in the UK, HM Customs and Excise cut open one ingot, but found nothing.

Having let the shipment pass, they were later informed by Dutch police that the drugs were held in the steel boxes; by which time Charrington, Warren and the shipment were untraceable.

However, a second shipment of 907 kg using the same method was already in transit from South America.

When the shipment landed in the UK in early 1992, Charrington, Warren and twenty-six others were placed under arrest in a prosecution brought by HM Customs and Excise.

However, in preliminary court procedures, it was revealed by police that Charrington was a police informant for the North-East Regional Crime Squad.

HM Customs officials went forward with their prosecution, despite protests from his police "handlers" Harry Knaggs and Ian Weedon.

In Newcastle Crown Court, it was alleged that Warren was so well informed, that he knew the length of the largest drill bit owned by HM Customs, and therefore the size/depth of the required ingots.

Eventually, through Conservative MP Tim Devlin, a meeting was arranged in which Customs was ordered to drop charges against Charrington on 28 January 1993.

The case was dropped, with all accused including Warren acquitted of all charges.

It is alleged that on release, Warren purposefully walked past the HM Customs agents, saying: "I'm off to spend my £87 million from the first shipment and you can't touch me."

Several months later, Knaggs was spotted by HM Customs officials driving a £70,000 BMW, previously registered to Charrington.

Warren returned to Liverpool.

But with the combination of various ritual killings of several organised crime figures, and the police pursuing him following the high-profile case failure, he had to move.

In 1995, Warren relocated to a villa in Sassenheim in the Netherlands.

He owned casinos in Spain, discos in Turkey, a vineyard in Bulgaria, land in the Gambia and had money stashed away in Swiss bank accounts.

He could have retired rich, but decided to continue importing drugs.

Monitored by police while calling his contacts in the UK, it was now apparent that Warren's photographic memory was useful for him: he never called contacts by their names, but code words.

All Swiss bank account details were kept in his head, and never written down.

He never kept accounts for his drug dealing business.

The result was that he had an unlimited credit line from cartels in South America, and with cannabis traffickers in Turkey and Eastern Europe.

On 24 October 1996, Brigade Speciale Beveiligingsopdrachten raided Warren's villa, and other property he owned in the Netherlands.

Warren and several associates were arrested, with police finding three guns, ammunition; hand grenades, crates with 960 CS gas canisters, 400 kg of cocaine, 1500 kg of cannabis resin, 60 kg of heroin, 50 kg of ecstasy, and 400,000 Dutch guilder plus 600,000 US Dollars in cash.

The whole haul was estimated to be worth £125 million.

In 1998, Warren made his only appearance in The Sunday Times Rich List, which stated as a property developer his fortune was estimated at £40 million.

His conviction in the subsequent trial ensured his removal.

In court, Warren's plan was shown to be the shipment of South American cocaine to Bulgaria.

Shipped to his vineyard, the drugs were then suspended in wine for onward shipment to the Netherlands and Liverpool in the UK.

In total, police had retained illegal goods, drugs and wine valued at £125 million.

Warren was sentenced to 12 years in jail, in the maximum security Nieuw Vosseveld prison in Vught.

However, further forensic accounting investigation only found £20 million of his estimated £120 million fortune, and none of that could be legally touched or confiscated by Dutch police, British police or Interpol.

On the afternoon of 15 September 1999, Warren had a fight in the prison yard with Turkish national Cemal Guclu, who was serving a 20-year sentence for murder and attempted murder.