AFTER 14 years behind bars, the most notorious drug lord in Britain is back on the same streets that he once ruled through violence and fear.
Nicknamed “Cocky”, Curtis Warren was once Interpol’s No1 target and has been described as the UK’s answer to Colombian cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar.
With his thick eyebrows, shaved head and boxer’s neck, the Liverpudlian gangster was almost perfect for the role of evil mastermind.
His crimes include smuggling what is suspected to be more than £225million worth of cocaine, beating a fellow inmate to death, headbutting and punching two police officers and armed robbery.
Warren’s criss-crossing of the global underworld has brought him into contact with tigers, hand grenades, helicopters and mafia hardmen.
As The Sun revealed yesterday he was released from Whitemoor maximum security prison in Cambridgeshire on Monday — and thanks to human rights laws was allowed to go home to Liverpool.
The question the people of Merseyside will be asking themselves is whether his return will see an escalation in the already bloody turf wars that have scarred the city.
Having been in trouble with the law since he was 12, the 59-year-old criminal has not previously shown a desire to go straight.
In fact, every time Warren has got out of jail, he has progressed to even bigger crimes.
He has even conducted criminal operations from inside a cell and slept with prison warders.
But this time the authorities are determined to make sure that if the gangster steps even slightly out of line, he will be back behind bars.
Living the high life
A 27-page-long serious crime prevention order aims to stop the slippery operator ever linking up with criminal associates.
He is banned from using instant messaging or getting anyone else to use WhatsApp on his behalf.
Going into a public phone box or using a library computer isn’t an option either.
Warren even has to tell the National Crime Agency the IMEI number of his mobile phone and the password for his email account.
But that is unlikely to stop the man who once appeared in the Sunday Times’ Rich List from living the high life.
He reportedly has a £2million penthouse at his disposal in Liverpool’s docklands, and it is believed his property portfolio includes 240 homes in the North West of England.
One of his first ports of call will be to his mum Sylvia, who is in poor health.
But with Warren under surveillance many former associates will think twice of teaming up with the country’s most high-profile ex-con.
His former gang member Stephen Mee, who was sentenced to 30 years for international cocaine smuggling, said: “Most people would be scared to go anywhere near Curtis now.”
From an early age Warren worked his way up through the ranks of Liverpool’s underworld.
It started with nicking a car five years before it was legal for him to drive, then there was a serious assault on two police officers at the age of 16.
By the time he was 20, Warren had been handed a five-year stretch for armed robbery.
After getting out, he realised that he could earn a fortune selling drugs as a bouncer and then got into dealing cocaine.
Smart enough to never taste his own goods, Warren also realised that more money could be made from smuggling illegal substances into the country.
It started with Holland and then in the 1980s he became the first British gangster to strike his own deal with Colombian cartels.
Warren, whose dad was a South American seaman, did business in a mafia compound where tigers roamed alongside other exotic beasts.
HM Customs got wind of a plot to ship in an estimated £150million worth of cocaine from Venezuela to Felixstowe in ingots in 1992 — but Warren secreted the stash deep in the gold so it could not be retrieved.
Senior investigator Chris Hardwick said: “They broke several drill bits trying to get into the ingots, so we had to let it go.”
A second shipment was uncovered and Warren was arrested, but due to the involvement of a police informant the case had to be dropped.
On leaving the dock he reportedly said: “I’m off to spend my £87million from the first shipment and you can’t f***ing touch me.”
His luck ran out in Holland where the authorities worked out the code names for his pals, such as the Bell With No Stalk and the Egg On Legs.
Warren awoke naked in his Dutch villa with a police gun to his head.
The raid, which recovered cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, guns and hand grenades, resulted in a 12-year stretch.
While in jail in Holland, murderer Cemal Guclu launched into Warren in the prison yard.
He ducked the punch and killed the Turk by kicking him four times in the head.
Having successfully claimed self-defence, Warren only received four years in jail for manslaughter.
As soon as the gangster was free, he was placed under strict surveillance by the British police. Three weeks later they suspected Warren was setting up a drugs operation in Jersey — and in October 2009 he was found guilty of conspiring to smuggle £1million of cannabis.
That resulted in another 13 years behind bars and a £198million confiscation order, none of which he has paid back.
Regarded as cult hero
Warren found a way to make sure that jail did not restrict his urges, with Jersey prison counsellor Teresa Rodrigues claiming: “We had sex in his little cell most days.”
He denied her claim — but in 2020 he was jailed for two years for having romps with British prison officer Stephanie Smithwhite, who allegedly cut a hole in her trousers so they could have intercourse during their six-month fling.
Smithwhite, 42, was so infatuated that she got a tattoo of his name and kept a copy of his autobiography.
There will be plenty of chances for Warren to cash in on his notoriety, with offers of Hollywood deals for him to tell his incredible tale.
And there are many young criminals in Liverpool and the North who want to work with the man who they regard as a cult hero.
Dr Mohammed Qasim, a visiting research fellow at the University of Bradford who specialises in gangs, says: “Every young person I speak to wants to be Curtis Warren.
“Gang members tell me they know him, even though most of them don’t have a clue who he is. The authorities had considered stopping him going back to Liverpool, but a National Crime Agency source said it was “regarded as a possible human rights violation.”
Instead the focus is on making sure Warren doesn’t get his hand on any of his ill-gotten gains.
£125M HAUL AT DUTCH HOUSE
3 guns, ammunition, hand grenades
960 CS gas canisters
400kg of cocaine
1,500kg of cannabis
60kg of heroin
50kg of ecstasy
$600,000 & 400,000
Dutch guilders cash
If he operates any bank accounts without informing the NCA he could face another five years in jail.
But Warren has a photographic memory which allows him to store the numbers of accounts without ever writing them down.
He will also be allowed to use his passport as long as he tells the NCA about it seven days in advance.
The harsh restrictions on Warren are to prevent him reoffending — but Dr Qasim believes that the ex-con can turn his life around. He explains: “A few weeks ago some young men spoke about his potential release from prison. They said he was going to go knocking on doors of people who owe him money, but I don’t know how true that is.
“I believe he has served his time and everyone deserves the opportunity to transform their lives.
“Liverpool has a big problem with turf wars and if he is reformed he could be used to disengage others from committing crime.
“He’s soon going to be 60 years old and if he gets locked up again he’s going to die in behind bars.”
In five years, the restrictions imposed by the crime order will be lifted, although the police are unlikely to ever take their eye off Warren.
If he doesn’t go straight, he’s likely to go straight back to prison.
STRICT TERMS HE MUST OBEY
CURTIS WARREN’S every move is going to be watched by the authorities.
The restrictions following his release are some of the most stringent the UK has ever seen.
If he breaks any part of a serious crime prevention order issued in 2013, the gangster can be sent back to prison for five years.
The strict terms of the 27-page agreement last for the next half a decade.
Warren can only possess one mobile phone, one Sim card and one number, one computer and one landline telephone number “for each premises at which he lives or works”.
The mobile phone and computer “must not be encrypted and must not run software which is designed to prevent data from being retrieved”.
Warren cannot use instant messaging services such as WhatsApp and he is not allowed to make calls from “any public telephone or kiosk” or “any publicly available internet facility or connection”.
He will have to tell the National Crime Agency (NCA) about each electronic device as soon as he obtains one, informing them of the “make, model, serial number and colour” and the “internet provider and account details”.
The NCA even has a right to trawl through his phone or laptop and know his passwords.
On the financial side, Warren cannot possess more than £1,000 in cash and has to let the NCA know about his accounts.
Source: The Sun