Curtis "Cocky" Warren was a global criminal, who made his mark on Jersey when he tried to bring £1 million of cannabis into the island.

Curtis "Cocky" Warren was a global criminal, who made his mark on Jersey when he tried to bring £1 million of cannabis into the island.

Once Interpol's Most Wanted man and a notorious gangster who once made the Sunday Times Rich List with a fortune of £40 million, it was a huge coup when Jersey Police nabbed him.

But after it emerged that police had used illegal means to get that conviction, they faced losing their prize catch.

Warren saw a chance to break free from his 13 year sentence. But now the 47-year-old's appeal, which he marched right into the highest court in the British Isles, has been dismissed, and he will serve out his long sentence behind bars.

In 2009, Warren and five associates were unanimously convicted of planning to buy cannabis worth £1 million in Amsterdam, take it by car to Normandy, and smuggle it to Jersey by boat.

If Warren and his gang had succeeded, they would have taken a major chunk of the island's illegal drug market and earned enough money to finance further shipments.

The grounds of Warren's appeal lay in the actions of Jersey police - who he says illegally bugged a car in order to gain evidence.

At his trial in 2009, the jury heard one bugged conversation in which Warren described the scheme as 'just a little starter'.

Warren claimed that Jersey police broke the law by bugging a car in France, Belgium and Holland, without permission from the European authorities.

What was never in question was that Warren has been a lifetime criminal - spending his life since he was 12 in and out of prison.

His criminal past can be traced back to his childhood, when he stole a car aged 12. He spent three months in a detention centre when he was 15 and received his first jail sentence in 1982 when he was imprisioned for two years for attacking a prostitute and her client.

After his release he became a bouncer, and it is believed it is this role that allowed him to become involved in the drugs trade.

By the time he was 20, he was dealing in drugs. A year later, he was jailed for five years for armed robbery.

After being released he headed back into the drugs world. He used his intelligence - he has a photographic memory - to store contacts' numbers in his head.

But in 1996 he and several associates were arrested after Dutch SWAT police raided Warren's villa and found guns, cocaine and canabis estimated to be worth an incredible £125 million.

While in prison, he killed a fellow prisoner in a fight and was later charged with manslaughter and sentenced to four years.

Warren is currently held in the high security wing of London's Belmarsh prison, where he will now serve out the rest of his sentence.
And it looks like it is not just his freedom he has lost. Police have reiterated that they plan to claim back any assets he has - believed to be a substantial fortune.

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