'Britain’s Pablo Escobar' Has Hidden '£200m Fortune' As He Prepares For Prison Release
Prosecutors think 'Britain's Pablo Escobar' could have around £200 million stashed away as he prepares for his release from prison.
Curtis Warren is reportedly due to leave prison in November this year, once his 13-year sentence is over.
Calling him 'Liverpool's most infamous gangster', the Liverpool Echo reports that prosecutors are wary of a 'murky network of hidden assets' through which he could access money made in the drug trafficking trade.
Sentenced in 2009 to 13 years in prison after being found guilty of conspiracy to smuggle cannabis, Warren insists he has no money left and has previously not paid a confiscation order that would have seen him leave prison years ago.
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Back in 2013 prosecutors at Jersey's Royal Court laid out the scope of Warren's money laundering network.
Then-attorney general Howard Sharp QC told the court that the operation included Swiss bank accounts, gold mining enterprises in Guyana and a property scheme in Turkey.
Warren was ordered to pay £198 million in a confiscation order or spend another decade behind bars after the jurats supported Sharp's case.
He said at the time that he had no cash left and didn't pay the money, his lawyer labelled a recording which the prosecution used for evidence as 'tittle-tattle, bragging and foolish talk'.
The recordings taken in a Dutch prison in 2004 had Warren discussing money laundering, where he said he 'sometimes' laundered between £10 million and £15 million a week.
Now he's seemingly set to be released in a matter of months, and it's thought he might try to access a possible stash of almost £200 million of hidden money prosecutors believe he still has.
However, the Echo also reports that if there is money hidden away for Warren to use when he leaves prison he might have a hard time using it.
Meanwhile, The Times suggests he could have bags full of £1 million stashed in various gardens around Liverpool, though under the terms of his release he may not be allowed back into the city.
Once he walks free he'll be under close scrutiny from the authorities, who will be looking for any sign that he's accessed a hidden stash of cash.
The National Crime Agency has obtained a Serious Crime Prevention Order against him, meaning they can monitor the assets the man who used to be Interpol's most wanted has access to, both in the UK and abroad.
Stephen Mee, one of Warren's former associates who used to work as a drug smuggler for him, said he hoped the man sometimes called 'Britain's Pablo Escobar' would stay out of trouble once out of prison.
He said: "Over half of Curtis’s life has been spent in prison. How much time do you want to waste?"
It's a fair question.
Joe Harker