One of the UK's most infamous gangsters is due for release this November and it is believed the lag could still have nearly £200million hidden away with the authorities unable to get to it.
Prolific drug lord Curtis Warren is set to become a free man once again later this year after spending the last 14 years behind bars.
He has spent an extra 10 years in prison because he has failed to hand over his drug fortune as it's believed he has concealed his huge trafficking profits in a murky network of hidden assets.
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It is unclear if Warren, known as Cocky, will be able to access his drug empire fortune on his release, as the crime kingpin will be under close watch by authorities both in the UK and abroad, reports Liverpool Echo.
In 2013, the criminal mastermind's elaborate money laundering machine was laid out by prosecutors at the Jersey's Royal Court.
It covered everything from Swiss bank accounts and a Turkish property scheme, to a gold mining venture in Guyana that were suspected to be part of his network, as authorities and lawmakers tried to piece together Warren's epic profits.
He was fighting the authorities in Jersey over an attempt to confiscate his profits following his conviction in 2009 for attempting to smuggle cannabis worth £1million onto the island.
The scheme was rumbled in July 2007, only five weeks after his release from a Dutch prison where he had been serving time since 1996 over a £125m drugs trafficking plot.
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The court heard the drug baron could source cocaine from South America, heroin from Turkey and Iran, and cannabis from Morocco, and distribute the contraband across the globe to far-flung places including Moscow, Brazil, Swaziland and Australia.
The court was also told that Warren, 59, boasted while in a Dutch prison of how he laundered £15m in cash each week.
In 1996, Dutch financial investigators estimated Warren made a drugs profit of £12m in a three-month period.
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While Warren awaited trial in Jersey, the drug lord reportedly made 35,000 calls from behind bars to contacts across the world. After a painstaking financial investigation, the total estimated figure was £197m, adjusted for inflation.
A covert surveillance operation revealed that Warren told a woman how his money and investments were “safe” in the event of his arrest, including that Warren had purchased a string of untraced properties in Turkey in 1996, said to include a petrol station which he was anticipating making £20,000 a month from.
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The court also heard the wiretap recorded evidence that Warren was involved in a £4m gold mining venture in Guyana, which would return “big money”, as well as conversations about a Dutch pallet business where Warren wanted paying into a Swiss bank account.
The prosecution told the court: “Warren was not burning his cash as his went along. He wanted a return on what he had earned.
"One of the reasons why Warren’s assets have remained hidden is that he is good at concealing ownership.
"The stark fact is that Warren had ways of laundering his assets in ways that are simply untraceable.”
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