DRUGS CASH LINK TO FOOTBALL CLUBS

DETECTIVES hunting millions of pounds made by an international
trafficker are investigating the use of football clubs to launder the
cash.

The National Crime Squad is examining attempts by traffickers to take
over a first division club.

Drugs money would have been hidden in turnstile payments and the cash
from bars in the ground.

Detectives are also looking into the use of a loan to a non-league
club made by an off-shore company which never seems to have traded.
The money may have come from drugs profits and the repayment by the
club would launder the receipts.

The investigation is part of a hunt by detectives from Merseyside into
cash hidden by Curtis Warren, one of the biggest traffickers in
Britain,who is now serving a 12- year prison sentence in Holland.

Five years ago Warren, who started life on the Liverpool streets as a
petty criminal, boasted he was worth up to UKP85 million.