The rise and fall of the 'snow king'
Updated on 07 October 2009
Drugs baron Curtis Warren, once the most wanted man in Europe, is convicted of trying to smuggle £1m worth of cannabis into Jersey.
A jury at the Royal Court in St Helier found Warren guilty of conspiracy to import a controlled drug today after a two week trial.
Warren, 46, from Liverpool, showed no emotion as the jury's unanimous verdict was given after around nine hours of deliberations. Warren had denied leading a plot to flood the Channel Island's streets with
the illegal drug.
His gang of five other members were also unanimously found guilty of conspiracy to import a controlled drug.
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.
The gang aimed to buy 180kg of cannabis in Amsterdam and transport the consignment by car to the coast of Normandy, France, where it was to be placed on a boat to Jersey.
Police surveillance teams and bugging devices caught Warren and Welsh arranging with underworld associates to obtain and transfer the cannabis haul - and claim his "cut" of the profits.
The jury heard one conversation where Warren described the plot as "just a little starter".
Crown Advocate Howard Sharp, prosecuting, told the jury: "Warren was the senior figure, he was the man at the top who pulled the strings.
"He had considerable clout and influence and we say he orchestrated this conspiracy. He was the crucial link between the sale in Holland and the purchasers in Jersey."
Background of a man once 'most wanted in Europe'
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 jury was told he was a drug trafficker of "substantial wealth and influence" and he was the only known trafficker to have appeared in the Sunday Times Rich List.
Warren's defence said he knew he was being bugged by the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) and the Jersey Police.
Advocate Stephen Baker, defending, claimed the recorded conversations had nothing to do with drugs and suggested he may have been arranging to buy guns to defend himself from rival gangsters or managing the "many, many" millions of pounds he has made from drug dealing.
Some of the surveillance evidence was obtained illegally by Jersey Police, leading to two years of court hearings before the trial took place.
But British Appeal Court judges, sitting in Jersey, ruled that the illegal recordings should be heard "in the interests of justice".
Warren was once the most wanted man in Europe.
Even after serving ten years in jail, police believe he is still powerful and dangerous with a hidden fortune thought to be worth between £180m and £300m.
The say intelligence suggests he was still involved in drug trafficking while he was behind bars.
The 46-year-old began dealing drugs on the streets of Toxteth in Liverpool and he avoided jail in 1993 when his trial for smuggling cocaine inside lead ingots collapsed at Newcastle Crown Court.
Stephen Baker told the Jersey jury Warren was "so sophisticated" he knew the length of the biggest drill bit that Customs used.
That meant he could hide the drugs deep enough inside the ingots to be sure they would not be discovered.
Paul Acda, who has worked for UK Customs investigating and prosecuting major drug dealers, gave his reaction to the verdict.
