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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
John Ward & Dan Haygarth

Curtis Warren 'lined up for big Hollywood film deal' after prison release

Former drug-lord Curtis Warren will walk into a huge film deal when he's released from prison, it has been claimed.

Toxteth-born Warren’s story is apparently being lined up by Hollywood producers once he is set free later this year . Sources close to the drug baron claim that he has been inundated with letters and promises of a big money deal for his life story to be portrayed on the big screen.

Friends say the man nicknamed 'Cocky', who was Interpol's former 'Target One', will leave the world of crime behind when he walks free in November, with strict conditions set to curb his movements. Instead, he is said to be interested in working with film makers, reports the Daily Star Sunday.

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An underworld source told the paper: “There’s no chance Curtis will get back in the game once he’s out. Not only would it be a daft move as he will have eyes on him everywhere he goes, he’s just not interested.

“He’s actually had loads of offers from film and documentary makers. Big names in Hollywood. Big streaming giants have also been offering big numbers for his story.

“I mean it’s a cracking story isn’t it. Kid from Toxteth rises through the ranks to become one of the biggest drug dealers in the world doing business with the Cali Cartel in Colombia and is even named on the Sunday Times rich list. And that’s just the stuff that’s already out there.

“There’s so much more that people don’t know. Who wouldn’t be interested in that?”

Jailed drugs baron Curtis Warren (Jersey Police/PA Wire)

Warren, 59, will not be allowed any assets worth more than £1,000 despite allegedly having £198million squirrelled away. He will be hit with a string of other curbs on his lifestyle under a serious crime prevention order, including foreign travel and his use of the internet, phones and vehicles.

The source said: “He’ll be looking to the future and right now teaming up with filmmakers is looking like his best bet. He still hasn’t decided but he knows it could be a lucrative path for him.

“The only thing possibly holding him back is that he’ll be thrust into the limelight and that’s something he hasn’t been used to as he’s had to stay in the shadows, and he was very good at it.”

Warren, who at one point had an estimated fortune of £300million, was jailed for 13 years in 2009 over a plot to smuggle £1million of cannabis into Jersey. He got another 10 years after failing to pay a £198million confiscation order, one of the largest ever made in Europe.

Warren was held after ­undercover police arrested him in 2007 just days after he had been released from prison in Holland for a massive drugs conspiracy. He has spent almost all of the last 25 years in jail.

Once he’s freed, Warren will be under close scrutiny at the highest level.

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