City gangster Warren guilty of pounds 1m plot; The only gangster to make the Rich List, Curtis Warren is facing another 14 years in prison, as Ben Rossington reports.

Byline: Ben Rossington

CURTIS WARREN, once Britain's richest gangster, was today facing another lengthy spell behind bars after being convicted of masterminding a pounds 1m drugs smuggling plot.

"Cocky" Warren, 46, from Toxteth, could be jailed for a maximum of 14 years after a Jersey jury unanimously found him guilty of conspiring to ship cannabis into the Channel Island.

The pressure the jury had been under told as some were in tears as they entered the grand court room in St Helier's Royal Court yesterday to deliver the verdict.

As they found him and his five co-defendants all guilty, Warren leant back in the small dock and smiled.

Sources say he already intends to appeal against his conviction.

During a three-week trial, the jury were told that police had foiled a major plot to import drugs on to the island in summer, 2007.

Warren spent four weekends in Jersey in June and July that year. His every movement was watched by local police, who bugged cars and phone boxes to gather the evidence.

And when he was back in the UK, the Serious Organised Crime Agency kept a close eye on him.

In just four weeks, Warren made 112 calls from public phone boxes despite having three mobiles. Police say this was him setting up the deal.

The court heard that Warren linked up his drugs contacts in Holland with Liverpool-born Jersey dealer John Welsh.

The plot, seen by others as small fry for a drugs kingpin such as Warren, saw the Toxtethborn defendant arrange for Welsh to drive to Amsterdam and buy 180kg of cannabis for 36,000 euros.

Welsh was to take half of the drugs, three other coconspirators were to split 30kg between themselves while Warren would have been given 30kg for simply setting up the deal, despite putting no money in. The Dutch dealers would get the profit from the remainder of the drugs.

Warren was caught on a secret police bug, put in a Jersey phone box, telling his contact in Amsterdam: "If we get 20 or 30 pieces ourselves, I will be happy."

He was also recorded saying the deal was "just a little starter ... " Police say this was proof he was looking to make big moves into the lucrative Jersey drugs market if this plan went without a hitch.

But the plot soon unravelled. Three Jersey men brought in to provide half the money failed to come up with the cash, while the boat that was supposed to be used to pick up the cargo from the French coast and bring it back to the island was on stilts in a field and barely sea-worthy.

The court heard recordings from a bug put in a hire car driven by Welsh from St Malo, in France, to Holland and back.

During one conversation in the car, Welsh was clearly heard talking to a Dutch dealer about "nine bars" - the bulk selling unit of cannabis - and the price of drugs on the streets of Jersey.

Police swooped to round up all the suspects as Welsh made his way back from the meeting empty-handed - the Amsterdam dealers unwilling to give him the drugs until all the money had been paid.

Warren had been a free man for just four weeks, having been released from a 10-year sentence for drug trafficking in Holland in June.

During the trial, police admitted lying to counterparts in France and bugging the hire car illegally. But none of that, or suggestions Warren could have been buying guns instead of drugs, made the jury think Warren was anything but guilty.

Welsh, 43, of Somerset Place, St Helier, and four other codefendants - James O'Brien, 45, of Tunnel Street, St Helier, and local men Jason Woodward, 22, Paul Hunt, 27, and Oliver Lucas, 23, were also found guilty.

Welsh was said to be Warren's "right-hand man" on Jersey, while O'Brien was to pilot the speedboat that would have sprinted the drugs back into the island from the continent.

Woodward, Hunt and Lucas were the trio who failed to find 18,000 euros between them, causing the deal to be postponed.

There were cries of "you're joking" and "you're having a laugh" from friends and family of the defendants who packed the public gallery as the verdicts were delivered after 9'hours of deliberation.

Commissioner Sir Richard Tucker thanked the jury for their efforts and then told them they would be exempt from jury service in the future.

He ordered all the defendants be remanded in custody.

They will be sentenced on December 4. But already it is understood there is dispute over who will house the Toxteth smuggler during his time behind bars.

It has cost Jersey millions to keep him in the cliff-top La Moye prison and the authorities want him off the island.

They believe they were acting under the influence of UK agencies, and now believe they shouldn't be the ones left picking up the bill. Top-security Belmarsh, which normally houses terrorists, is a possible destination.

But the UK authorities are fighting back.

Their view is "you nicked him, you keep him".

OPINION: PAGE 8 [e-mail] He started on the streets of Toxteth - and became the European representative for the Columbian drug cartels CURTIS WARREN'S criminal career started as a boy being driven around in a stolen car and rose to him being named in the Times Rich list.

Growing up in Toxteth, he was used by older criminals because he was too young to be prosecuted.

As a bouncer, he got into drug dealing when he saw how much money could be made.

Not a user himself, Warren built up direct connections with the Columbian cartels, soon becoming their man in Europe whose power was said to be such that he could directly influence the price of drugs on Britain's streets.

He was put on trial in 1993 over an alleged pounds 190m drugs plot but walked free when the judge ruled there was no evidence.

This led to him becoming Interpol's "Target One".

Finally, four years later, he was locked up in Holland for his part in a plot to flood Britain with cocaine and other drugs, worth pounds 125m.

His sentence was increased to 16 years for the manslaughter of a Turkish inmate. Then he was convicted of running a drug ring from his cell, but the conviction was quashed on appeal.

Warren made the Sunday Times Rich List in 2007 when his fortune was estimated at pounds 40m as a "property developer".

But the UK's Assets Recovery Agency has only ever clawed back pounds 3.6m. More investigations into his finances are now ongoing.

Curtis Warren AGE: 46 ROLE: The "Mastermind" behind the conspiracy. Using his longforged contacts, Warren linked up drug dealers in Jersey with more serious criminals in Holland. His associates, Mohammed Liazid and Andy Sequeira, hooked up in Amsterdam to get the cannabis ready for collection by the Jersey gang. Warren was set to profit from the deal, getting 20-30kg of cannabis, worth around pounds 100,000 on the Jersey streets, simply for setting it up.

John Welsh AGE: 43 ROLE: Warren's "right-hand man" on Jersey.

Welsh was a small-time cannabis dealer on the island who was already being watched by the local police.

Then the Everton fan got involved with Warren, whom he has known for more than 20 years, and his scheming took to the international stage - albeit with a "laughable" plot that was seemingly doomed to fail from the outset.

James O'Brien AGE: 45 ROLE: The "boat man". O'Brien was linked into the plot by Welsh, who offered him pounds 500 to pilot a speedboat from Jersey to the Normandy coast, pick up the drugs and bring them back. He was already familiar with smuggling drugs from France - he was caught and jailed for doing the same thing in 2002. He was found with the tide timetable when arrested and with the route from Jersey to the pick-up point in France already keyed into his GPS sat-nav.

Jason Woodward AGE: 22 ROLE: Unemployed since leaving college, Woodward lived off money won playing poker and an inheritance that allowed him to live "quiet comfortably".

He was one of the original conspirators with Welsh and Hunt, and was supposed to come up with pounds 6,000 to buy a share of the drugs.

The only one of the six defendants to be allowed bail during the case, thanks to a massive surety put up by his rich Jersey grandparents.

But he was arrested for fighting on Saturday night and jailed.

Paul Hunt AGE: 27 ROLE: Hunt was described as being the original "boat man" before James "Captain Jim" O'Brien was brought on board.

Hunt's telephone number was found stored in John Welsh's mobile phone as "Paul Boat 2".

But, as the plan changed, he got involved in coming up with the cash and helping transport the drugs back to Jersey.

It has since emerged that Hunt's girlfriend died and his best friend was killed in a street fight while he was on remand awaiting trial.

Oliver Lucas AGE: 22 ROLE: A university drop-out, Lucas was called in by Woodward and Hunt, both long-standing friends, as they struggled to raise the cash to keep up their end of the deal.

But the failed business studies student, who lived at home with his mother and two sisters, and did a series of temping jobs in the finance sector, had no money in either of his bank accounts, leaving the plot well short of the 18,000 euros he, Woodward and Hunt were supposed to find for their 30kgs of cannabis.

CAPTION(S):

Curtis Warren arrives at The Royal Court, in St Helier, Jersey A surveillance image of John Welsh, left, collecting Toxteth drugs baron Curtis Warren at Jersey airport John Welsh, left, and Curtis Warren chat on a bench John Welsh, left, and Curtis Warren, in a public phone box in Jersey