Former drug dealer Curtis Warren was arrested on suspicion of breaching his Serious Crime Prevention Order.
The 60-year-old, from Toxteth, was arrested by the National Crime Agency in Boldon Colliery, South Tyneside, just before 6am on Wednesday, July 5. He is being questioned by police on suspicion of committing numerous breaches.
The order came into force after his release from prison in November 2022 for drug trafficking offences, and the suspected breaches under investigation relate to the unauthorised use of mobile phones, vehicles, bank accounts and travel.
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NCA officers also carried out searches at the location in Boldon and another address in the Royal Albert Dock area of Liverpool. Mobile devices, documents and a quantity of cash were seized, and they are now being examined by investigators.
The operation was supported by Merseyside Police and the North East Regional Organised Crime Unit (NEROCU). Breach of a serious crime prevention order is a criminal offence subject to a maximum sentence of five years, an unlimited fine, or both.
The Toxteth native once dubbed 'Target One' by Interpol was released from the maximum security HMP Whitemoor, in Cambridgeshire. He was made subject to a strict raft of restrictions including a ban from instant messaging apps WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, being in possession of more than £1,000 in cash, giving police a day's notice if he wants to use a friend's car and a ban on travel outside of England and Wales without giving seven days notice to police.
Today Alison Abbott, from the NCA’s Lifetime Management of Offenders Team, said: "These court orders are vital tools for preventing and deterring future offending. Once criminals come onto our radar, they never leave, and the NCA will take action over breaches."
Warren was jailed in Holland in 1996 for a £125million cocaine importation scheme. While in the Dutch Nieuw Vosseveld jail, Warren killed fellow prisoner Cemal Guclu by kicking him in the head, after the Turkish convicted killer launched an unprovoked attack in the prison yard.
A Dutch judge accepted Guclu was killed in self-defence but found Warren used "excessive violence" and convicted him of manslaughter, landing him an extra four years. He was briefly a free man upon his release in 2007, and returned to the UK.
However he only managed five weeks on the outside before being arrested over a plot to smuggle cannabis worth £1million into Jersey. He later had 10 years added onto his sentence failing to pay back £198million as part of a Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) confiscation order.
