International gangster jailed by Royal Court features in new BBC series

Wednesday 20 July 2022

One of the UK’s most notorious criminals - who was jailed for 13 years by the Royal Court in 2009 - is the subject of a major new BBC podcast series.

Curtis ‘Cocky’ Warren is reportedly the only criminal to ever make the Sunday Times Rich List who left his native Liverpool to become an international cocaine smuggler.

But in 2009 a jury in Jersey found him guilty of being involved in a plot to smuggle £1m worth of cannabis into the island.

He had only been out of prison for five weeks when he was arrested in 2007 by Jersey police, accused of being the ringleader of a six-man gang who were trying to import 180 kg of cannabis into the island from Holland via boat from France.

It has been reported that he is due to be released this year.

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.

The story of Britain’s most notorious drugs baron is explored in a new @BBCSounds podcast - Gangster: The Story Of Curtis Warren

Start listening today????https://t.co/yUu9rZ91De pic.twitter.com/WHPJ078RIM

— BBC Press Office (@bbcpress) July 6, 2022

Last 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.

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.

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