THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF COCKY, FROM BOY JOYRIDER TO EVIL DRUG EMPEROR

At the age of 12, he had his first brush with the law when he was
stopped in a stolen car, barely able to peer over the wheel.

Twenty-two years later, the scally from Toxteth had graduated by way
of small-time cannabis deals and extorting money from prostitutes to
become Britain's number one drugs baron.

By the time he was finally convicted, Curtis Warren had a hotline to
the most formidable drugs producers in the world - from the cocaine
cartels of Colombia to the opium fields of Afghanistan.

A new book published this week reveals how the man nicknamed Cocky
managed to make it into the list of the richest 500 people in the land.

"Cocky" (Milo Books, UKP14.99) makes clear that for all of the success
of the joint Anglo-Dutch operation in jailing the man they knew as
Target One, tracking down the immense proceeds of Warren's crimes is
still unfinished business.

Dutch prosecutors have made an attempt to seize assets believed to be
worth UKP18million, which sources say will probably rise to
UKP28million later this year.

He reputedly has a property empire of 270 terraced houses in
Liverpool, hotels and petrol stations in Turkey, a mansion in Holland,
another on Merseyside and even a Bulgarian winery.

But as one of the investigators from the police and customs team
admits: "Who knows? We think most of his money was going to Dubai and
from there it is a black hole."

The rise of Warren, son of a black merchant seaman and the white
daughter of a shipyard boiler attendant, is remarkable because in
spite of prison terms for violence and armed robbery, he was only seen
as a street-level dealer, "a nobody on the first rung of the ladder"
in the late Eighties.

But Liverpool was emerging as the United Kingdom's "centre of
excellence" for drug smuggling and the quick wits and imposing frame
of Cocky Warren had caught the eye of one of the key players in the
Liverpool drugs mafia.

The Banker was a man who made his first fortune in the Sixties
hijacking lorries from Liverpool docks. He has never been convicted
for drugs, but it is widely believed he has funded some of the world's
biggest deals.

Amsterdam was the magnet for drug dealers in the late 1980s and the
older Liverpool crooks who gave Warren the essential introduction.
Cocky was soon a regular traveller through Schipol Airport and his
master stroke was to cut out all middle men and deal directly with the
suppliers in Colombia and Morocco as well as the Turkish controllers
of heroin.

His leap to drug importation became clear when a courier was stopped
at Dover with a Bible which had been hollowed out and packed with heroin.

Persuaded to co-operate, he rang Warren at home and told him he "had
the drugs". The phone line went dead. There was no case against
Warren, but he was now a target and soon came to be regarded as one of
the most important drugs brokers in northern Europe.

He had no qualifications and appeared to have no regular job. Yet he
earned more than a top City trader, worked longer hours than a junior
doctor and commanded the loyalty of a small army.

Informants revealed that he had set up a major link with the
Colombians and in 1992 prosecutors thought they had him.

They had been told how 2,000kg of cocaine was smuggled from Venezuela
to Greece by way of Felixstowe, where a quarter of the load was
brought into Britain, sealed inside lead ingots.

He was put on trial when a second shipment was foiled. But the judge
ordered Warren's acquittal when the prosecution case unravelled.

Legend has it that after he walked free, he strolled up to customs
officers and said: "I'm off to spend my UKP87million from the first
shipment and you can't f*ing touch me."

Warren started to make mistakes after setting up his base in Holland
to escape gang wars in Liverpool which led to 42 shootings and left 29
dead or injured.

His phones had been tapped at home, but nothing he said could be used
in court.

It was different in Holland and Dutch prosecutors got enough to link
him to another shipment of cocaine. Dozens of officers armed with stun
grenades and machine guns arrested Warren in October 1996 and he got
12 years.

More than 80 others were arrested as the empire fell, including Det
Chief Insp Elmore Davies, jailed for five years for corruption for his
part in trying to get one of Warren's acquaintances off a firearms
charge.

Warren has had further trouble behind bars in Holland after killing a
Turkish murderer who attacked him in an exercise yard. He is likely to
be charged, but the prison authorities will strongly back his plea of
self-defence.

People close to Warren say he will return to the drugs world - the
transcripts of phone calls certainly reveal a vanity which suggests he
needs the status he gets from being regarded as a smart operator.

As for The Banker, he is in semi-retirement in Brussels. Three weeks
ago Home Secretary Jack Straw spoke of a drugs baron who had amassed a
UKP450million fortune which made him the 40th richest person in
Britain. When a friend of The Banker asked if Straw had been talking
about him, he replied: "Well, I don't think so, but I'm not sure."