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One of Britain's most notorious criminals was convicted today of a £1 million plot to smuggle cannabis into Jersey.
Curtis Warren, the only drugs trafficker to be included in the Sunday Times Rich List, is facing years in jail.
The gangster, once known as Interpol's “target one”, plotted the operation while serving a 10-year sentence in a Dutch prison for drugs trafficking and manslaughter.
After his release, police surveillance teams bugged cars used by Warren and his associates and listened as details of the plot unfolded.
The gang aimed to buy 180kg of the drug in Amsterdam and transport the consignment by car to Normandy where it was to be placed on a boat and landed in Jersey.
Police caught Warren arranging with associates to obtain and transfer the cannabis and claim his “cut” of the profits.
The jury heard one conversation where Warren described the plot as “just a little starter” and investigators believe the deal was the opening move to gain control of the drugs trade in the Channels Islands and, perhaps, open a new route to the mainland and London.
Warren, 46, who denied the plot, would take a sizeable share of the haul and, as the street value of drugs in Jersey is three times higher than in Britain, he expected to make a handsome
profit.
A jury at the Royal Court in St Helier found him guilty of conspiracy to import a controlled drug today after a two-week trial. His co-accused
Jonathan Welsh, 43, James O'Brien, 45, Jason Woodward, 22, Paul Hunt, 27, and Oliver Lucas, 23, were also unanimously found guilty of conspiracy to import a controlled drug.
Crown Advocate Howard Sharp, prosecuting, told the jury that Warren “was the man at the top who pulled the strings”.
Just weeks before the Jersey plot began in May 2007, Warren was released from a Dutch prison where he had served 10 years of a 17-year term
for drug trafficking, firearms offences and, later, manslaughter. The latter happened after a fight with another inmate.
Warren, originally from Liverpool, is thought to have amassed a hidden fortune estimated at between £180 million and £300 million.
