ONE of Britain’s most infamous criminals is now tasting freedom but a new generation of gangsters might now shun him due to “heat” from the police.
Curtis Warren rose from the back streets of inner city Liverpool to become an Interpol target who was famously included in the Sunday Times Rich List.
HandoutLiverpool man Curtis Warren has now been released from the prison system[/caption]
PAWarren at a high security court hearing in Jersey[/caption]
He was forced to serve an extra ten years in prison when he refused to hand over the £198million fortune police believed he had made from international crime.
But Warren was released from prison last month and the Liverpool Echo reported that he was thought to be back on home turf for the first time since 2007.
Warren still has many friends in the city, some of who have made fortunes in the property game.
The former drugs king pin – dubbed the “UK’s Pablo Escobar” – is also close to one notorious crime family who control a network of property interests.
The career criminal is rumoured to have his own property portfolio and has been linked to a winery, petrol stations, apartment blocks, a private yacht and mansions across Europe.
GANGSTER ‘CELEBRITY’
Warren, now 59, will be aware that many of his colleagues from the drug game are now facing long prison sentences after police smashed the EncroChat encrypted phone network known as the ‘WhatsApp for gangsters.’
The career crook who spent the last 13 years in the prison system is now looking forward to freedom as key associates who used Encro phones are facing a long haul behind bars.
One former associate of Warren, who asked not to be named , suggested the notorious criminal was highly unlikely to jump back into the drug game.
He said: “I just can’t imagine any local gangs wanting to work with him due to the heat it would bring.
“You would have to be stupid or want to go to prison.
“People will want him at their parties but they won’t graft ( sell drugs) with him. I suppose he is a celebrity of sorts now.”
The Liverpool that Warren grew up in the 1980s has now vanished as the city has been transformed by development.
I just can’t imagine any local gangs wanting to work with him due to the heat it would bring.
Former associate of Curtis Warren
The waterfront is now home to the Liverpool ONE shopping centre and many of the city’s historic buildings are now home to trendy apartments for wealthy professionals .
The core of Warren’s set up was rooted in the streets of Toxteth which were once a no-go zone for police.
But many of the gangster’s trusted lieutenants are now dead or have left the city for good. The greasy spoon cafes where he once held court and did business are now long gone.
The new generation of ruthless gangs that rule the streets of Toxteth are now made up of teenagers young enough to be Warren’s grandchildren.
The Liverpool man is now subject to a raft of restrictions that prevent him from doing normal things such as using WhatsApp or Facebook messenger.
Those measures are part of a Serious Crime Prevention Order used by the National Crime Agency ( NCA) to monitor individuals linked to serious crime.
He was jailed for 13 years in 2009 after he tried to flood Jersey with cannabis.
A judge sentenced him to another ten years in 2014 after Warren refused to pay back £198m.
UK’S PABLO ESCOBAR
Warren, who made the leap from back street robbery to drug crime, famously left his home city in the mid 90s after a gang war threatened his safety.
Former boxing champion David Ungi died during the wave of violence, which forced police to send out officers armed with Heckler & Koch semi-automatic machine guns.
At one point Warren was heard by police threatening to blow a Liverpool street up with plastic explosives if his brother was harmed by his enemies.
Warren swapped Liverpool for Amsterdam, where he spent his days organizing international drug deals and his nights in local massage parlours.
Secret wiretaps recorded Warren boasting about his visits to Amsterdam’s famous brothels where he watched pornography and then enjoyed a dip in a jacuzzi. Warren, who has never touched drink or drugs, had a keen interest in women and fast cars.
However, police back in the UK had launched a secret operation to bring down Warren codenamed ‘Operation Crayfish.’ The secret unit was housed in a base off the M62 known as ‘Fragglerock’ and worked around the clock to nail Warren and his international associates.
The operation resulted in a crack team of armed Dutch police storming Warren’s farmhouse during the early hours of the morning. Prosecutors later linked Warren to a drug plot worth £125m and he was jailed for 12 years.
Operation Crayfish also targeted Warren’s network back in Liverpool, and led police to the door of TV Gladiator star Mike Ahearne.
The telly star was used as a go-between in a plot to interfere with a court case and was later jailed for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
PAWarren was jailed after he organised a plot to flood Jersey with cannabis[/caption] Read More