Curtis Warren's drug empire came crashing down after making 'lucky' phone call in Holland

Curtis Warren, the notorious former drug baron, was captured after a "lucky" phone call in the Netherlands, according to his one-time criminal partner Stephen Mee. The pair first crossed paths in 1991 at Strangeways prison in Manchester, where Mee was awaiting a lengthy sentence.

In a daring escape while being transported to court on the M62, Mee was freed and subsequently fled to Holland via private plane. Warren, whose trial for an alleged plot to import 1,000kg of cocaine into Britain fell apart in 1993, also made his way to the Netherlands and reconnected with Mee.

They quickly resumed their illicit trade until 1996 when 'Operation Crayfish' enabled police to apprehend them.

READ MORE: Convicted gangster Curtis Warren 'wants peace' after avoiding jail over order breach

On the Anything Goes With James English podcast, Mee recounted the events leading up to their arrest. He remarked: "People on them phones, just normal phones, they were all over Curtis.

"About six months before we got caught, we were living in a nice little house, one of my friends had come early in the morning to go play a round of golf and he'd spotted a couple of strange looking cars with strange people in them. There were two cars in a line with eight blokes in them and straight away just police.", reports the Liverpool Echo.

"I just drove to Paris that night, never went back to the house, left everything behind. Stayed in Paris for a few days then went back to a different part of Holland in the north."

Dutch police intercepted phone conversations between Mee and Warren, initially finding it difficult to understand their accents and backslang.

However, the investigation made a significant advance when they learned that Mee had travelled to