Drugs baron Curtis Warren 'to be freed next year'

Friday 05 November 2021

Drugs baron Curtis Warren, who was imprisoned for 13 years in 2009 following a failed plot to smuggle £1m of cannabis into Jersey, is set to be freed next year, according to UK media reports.

It was reported this week that Warren (58) is being prepared for release next year.

According to the Mirror, he will face strict restrictions when he is set free, including curbs on foreign travel, using phones, vehicles and the internet; and not being able to own assets over £1,000.

The restrictions will form part of a ‘serious crime prevention order’ issued by the UK’s National Crime Agency.

The tabloid reported that Warren, who gained the nickname 'Cocky', is due to be automatically released next year and will not have to go before a parole board because he is not serving a life sentence.

The former bouncer, who was Interpol’s most wanted criminal in the mid 1990s, is famed as the only drug smuggler to make it on to the Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated fortune of £300m. 

In 2013, the Royal Court ordered Warren to pay £198m after the drug dealer failed to prove he had not earned that sum in a lifetime of high-level criminality. He failed to provide the funds so was given a default sentence of ten years in prison, of which he had to serve at least half.

Warren appealed the sentence but lost.

In 2020, he hit the headlines again after one of his prison guards, Stephanie Smithwaite, was jailed for two years for having a relationship with the drug dealer while he was imprisoned at HMP Frankland, near Durham.

Durham Crown Court was told that she became infatuated by the “major league offender” and had a tattoo of his name.

Earlier this year, Warren was added to the National Crime Agency’s ‘Ancillary Orders Register,’ a watchlist imposing certain restrictions on him to prevent him becoming involved in serious crime again.

The Liverpudlian has spent most of the past 25 years in prison, having been arrested in Jersey just five weeks after being released from prison in the Netherlands. 

Warren’s trial in Jersey was one of the highest profile cases to be heard in the Royal Court. Amid tight security, which included rooftop marksmen, he was found guilty, along with five other men, including two from Jersey.

This year, it was reported that British director Guy Ritchie had asked Warren’s legal team about making a film about the gangster.