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Cocky: The Rise and Fall of Curtis Warren, Britain's Biggest Drugs Baron, Tony Barnes, Richard Elias, Peter Walsh, Milo Books, 2000, 0953084728, 9780953084722, . The Rise and Fall of Curtis Warren, Britain's Biggest Drug Baron At eleven he was stealing cars. At fifteen he was beating up policemen. At twenty he was an armed robber. And, by his thirtieth birthday, Curtis Warren was the biggest drug dealer in Britain. This is his story. 'The mythology of British villainy needs to be re-written. Next to Warren, the Krays were pathetic miinnows.' - The Observer. DOWNLOAD HERE I Was Keith Richards' Drug Dealer , Tony Sanchez, Sep 1, 2003, , 318 pages. The Rolling StonesвЂ―a band who spawned a thousand imitators. They took "rock 'n' roll" and shaped it in their own image and to heights that no other act of this or any other .... Serial Killers and Mass Murderers Profiles of the World's Most Barbaric Criminals, Nigel Cawthorne, Jan 25, 2007, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY, 256 pages. Serial killer books are perennial favorites in the true crime section. Loose Ends , Guy Cullen, 2008, Fiction, 268 pages. How far would you go to keep your family, your liberty or even your life? Doorman Sammy Jackson is finding out the hard way. A decision made in haste is coming back to haunt .... The Cocky Who Cried Dingo , Yvonne Morrison, Sep 1, 2010, , 24 pages. If Aesop had been born Australian, this is the story he would have written instead of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. As it is, Yvonne Morrison has done the job for himвЂ―telling the .... Dave Courtney's Heroes & Villains , Dave Courtney, Mar 30, 2006, , 192 pages. Dave Courtney, 'one of the most feared men on the streets of London' reveals the characters, both fictional and all too real, that have most influenced his colorful - and once .... Gangsters , Wensley Clarkson, Apr 1, 2003, , 272 pages. This is the inside story of the wealthiest, most powerful, most cold-blooded gangsters living openly in the UK. Included are such underworld legends as the Adams Family .... The Guv'nor , Lenny McLean, Jan 1, 2003, Biography & Autobiography, 354 pages. Lenny McLean was one of the deadliest bare-knuckle fighters Britain has ever seen. He had dear, powerful friends, but he also had terrible enemies. So much so that he has two .... Guvnors The Best-Selling Autobiography of a Soccer Hooligan Gang Leader, Mickey Francis, Peter Walsh, Dec 3, 1997, , 194 pages. A first-hand account of how Michael Francis and his brothers ran the Guvnors, a Manchester City based hooligan gang that wreaked havoc on the streets and terraces of Britain .... Tearaways , Michael Macilwee, Mick Macilwee, Mar 20, 2008, , 288 pages. At the turn of the 20th century in Liverpool, there emerged ruthless groups of street thugs who terrorised both the law-abiding and the lawless. By 1946 the city had 86 .... Roy Shaw Unleashed , Kate Kray, Oct 31, 2004, , 245 pages. When Kate Kray wrote Pretty Boy, she interviewed scores of people. Almost without exception, as she was leaving, they would say to her, "I'll tell you something about RoyвЂ―but .... Mean Streets: A Journey Through the Northern Underworld , Tony Barnes, Nov 1, 2000, Social Science, 200 pages. Based on the major Granada TV series of the same name, this is the story of organised crime in the North-West of England from the Victorian era right up to the present day .... Curtis Warren is an underworld legend, the Liverpool scally who took the methods of the street-corner drug pusher and elevated them to an art form. He forged direct links with the cocaine cartels of Colombia, the heroin godfathers of Turkey, the cannabis cultivators of Morocco and the Ecstasy manufacturers of Holland and Eastern Europe. His drugs went around the world, from the clubs of Manchester, Glasgow and Dublin to the golden beaches of Sydney. This best-selling biography uncovers his meteoric rise from Toxteth mugger to `the richest and most successful British criminal who has ever been caught.' It relates how the Liverpool mafia became the UK's foremost drug importers; tells how Warren survived gang warfare and how he corrupted top-level police officers; unveils the inside story of the biggest UK law enforcement operation ever undertaken; and reveals the explosive contents of the covert wiretaps that brought his global empire crashing down. "Once upon a time, a Scouser in a shellsuit with the head of a bullet on the neck of an ox turned up at the Squires Gate helipad in Blackpool and went for a flying lesson in a helicopter. He paid £750 in cash. The notes were crisp and new. The chopper flew up and away over the Irish Sea, leaving the effluent plume from the Mersey and the metal prick of the Blackpool Tower far below. The chopper flew north over the grey, scudding sea to the peninsula of Barrow-on-Furnace where they turn out nuclear submarines for the Royal Navy. The Scouser pointed to a big square of grass down below, the grounds of the non-league Barrow Athletic Football Club, and said: `I own that.' Some boast. But it turns out that he wasn't short of a bob or a hundred million pounds. The scally's name was Curtis Warren, his nickname Cocky Watchman, Scouse slang for a dodgy caretaker, and he was, some say, the Cali cartel's agent for northern Europe. Her Majesty's Customs and Excise had a different name for him: Target One. He's banged up now, serving a 12-year-stretch in Vught prison in the Netherlands, a former Nazi concentration camp, for importing enough cocaine into Europe to keep the London advertising industry happy until the year 2010. Meanwhile, British Customs officers and policemen, working in tandem for a Dutch judge, are beginning to unpick a fraction of Cocky's missing millions. Forget Kenneth Noye. He was just a fence, albeit for the Brinks Matt gold bullion robbers, and one with a nasty temper. Forget the Krays. They were just pathetic minnows. It is nigh on certain that Cocky is the richest criminal in British history. I remember vividly the first time I ever heard the name Curtis Warren. Veronica Guerin, the brilliant Irish journalist had been shot dead in Dublin in the summer of 1996, for going after the heroin barons who were making themselves rich while a generation of Irish kids were getting suckered on smack. Her mission had been simple: follow the money. The Observer sent me off to find out who, and why, and how. And what were the names of the British Mr Bigs? In search of the British Mr Bigs, I had gone to a pub to meet a Customs investigator, the late Bill Newall, who at that time was working for the heroin target team. Bill had `called the knock' on many heavy-duty nasties, including a number of Turkish heroin traffickers ...I asked Bill about the Mr Bigs, the ones that always get away. He took a pull on his pint and said: `Then you've got to go to Liverpool. And ask them about Curtis Warren.' `He's nothing much to look at. The usual big Scouse tough guy in a shellsuit. But this one is good. He doesn't drink, smoke or use drugs. He's got a photographic memory for telephone numbers, numbers of bank accounts and the like. We've been looking for where he keeps his stuff. On a computer? In notes? No way. He carries it all inside his head." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Being from Merseyside I was particularly keen to digest this book as I remember being scared to leave the house back in the dark days of 1996 when gangland tit-for-tat shootings brought the city to its knees! However, to say I was a little disappointed is somewhat of an understatement. Much of the material was of an official nature and other tit-bits were merely common knowledge on the streets so groundbreaking information was severely limited. Also, it failed to directly engage a number of the main characters discussed in the body, such as Tony Bray, Curtis himself or any of the Ungi family. Overall, I found to be almost like a police report rather than an investigative piece of accomplished journalist which is unfortunately why I have rated it at only 2 stars. It's clear that Curtis Warren was a nasty individual, and clearly someone I wouldn't wish to cross. It's equally clear, however, that the gentlemen who wrote this book did very little to research their subject fully. They mention at the beginning of the book that several of the key players in the story are still subject to legal proceedings, and cannot, therefore, be named in this book. I'd suggest that it might have been better to wait until a full account could have been made, because all I got out of this book was a collection of facts that I'd have got if I'd been reading the tabloids in 1995 and 1996. If you like a good hearty account of international drug trafficing, this is for you. If you want to get inside the head of Curtis Warren, clearly it is not. Whilst the authors appeared to have lots of access to court reports, newspaper clippings and those 'in the know' in police and customs, they cannot disguise that they knew very little about Warren himself and of course this is part of Warren's mystique and intention.

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