A drugs boss dubbed the UK’s Pablo Escobar has been released from prison after serving a 14-year sentence. Curtis Warren, 59 is reportedly heading back home to Liverpool where he will be subject to some of the strictest measures. Warren, whose former drugs gang was once worth £200million, was jailed for 13 years in 2009 for a £1million cannabis smuggling plot.
He was handed another ten years for failing to comply with a £198 million Proceeds of Crime Act confiscation order.
Now he is banned from using WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger as well as holding cryptocurrency or possessing more than £1,000 in cash.
He even has to give police handlers 24 hours’ notice if he is getting into a friend’s car and has to give seven days notice if he is planning to travel to Scotland.
These rules were first imposed on Warren in 2013 in the UK’s first serious crime prevention order.
Failure to comply with the strict rules could land him back in prison for another five years.
After being released from Whitemoor jail in Cambridgeshire, a source close to Warren told The Sun he “always planned on coming back to Liverpool” where he built his empire.
His barrister Anthony Barraclough said: “The first thing he wanted to do was to see his mother. He just wants peace and quiet. He is allowed to have a decent, ordinary life.”
Warren and his bank accounts will also be monitored by the National Crime Agency for the next five years.
They said: “Action against serious and organized criminals doesn’t end with a conviction.”
The Mirror reports an insider saying: “There’ll be eyes all over Curtis when he gets out and he knows he’ll be restricted as to where he can go and who he can see.
“He’s an intelligent man so I’m sure he’ll be keeping a low profile on his release.”