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Stephen Mee was facing a long jail sentence after he was caught trying to smuggle £1m worth of cannabis and cocaine into the UK. He has been caught in an undercover police sting while attempting to ship drugs in from Colombia. But as the then 34-year-old sat in remand at HMP Risley, he began to hatch a plan to break out of jail. He knew his transfer from the Lancashire prison to his sentencing at Manchester Crown Court would be his best - and final - chance to escape. Speaking to the Terry Stone Connection podcast, Mee said: "At the time Strangeways was upside down because of the riots. So once I got nicked I ended up in Risley waiting for my sentence. "So then on April 1, 1993, 2pm in the afternoon, on the steps walking up to the coach I was cuffed to this other lad who knew nothing about it. I said 'something's going to happen in a minute'. And something did happen." As the coach carrying Mee was on the M62, a blue Vauxhall Astra sped in front of it close to junction 11 at Cadishead before forcing it to a halt. As two men jumped out of the Vauxhall, Mee stood up, shouted 'nobody move' then leapt from the back of the bus onto the hard shoulder, dragging his unwilling passenger with him. The prisoners then got into the car which sped off towards Manchester. According to police records, the gang that broke Mee free were said to be armed with rocket launchers, although he has always denied this. Mee says he was brought to Liverpool, where he was put up in a series of safe houses before being flown by private plane to the Netherlands. He arrived in the Netherlands and went straight back into drug smuggling , the MEN reports. While on remand in Strangeways Mee had formed a friendship that would propel him from small-time crook to a key player in one of Europe's biggest drugs cartels. Like Mee, Curtis Warren was a drug trafficker. Mee said: "When we started talking I found that I'd been to a lot of places he'd been to, so we sort of clicked straight away. We had the same temperament, you know, not bragging and all that, very quiet and getting on with it." As Mee began his new life on the run, back in the UK the case against jail pal Warren had collapsed . Described at the time as Britain's biggest criminal investigation, it was alleged Warren had set up a deal with the Colombian Cali Cartel to import £250m of cocaine into the UK. Now a free man, Warren then left for the Netherlands where he hooked up with Mee and the pair began running a drug trafficking empire. Mee, who in his absence had been sentenced to 22 years in prison, built a fierce reputation as a reliable middle-man. They began selling vast amounts of drugs smuggled into Europe from South America packed in tins of ham, disguised as roof tiles or hidden in suitcases and rolls of fabric. Speaking to the Second Chance podcast, Mee said: "One one occasion I put £5m of cash in a car boot. I was driving about Amsterdam with £5m in the boot. I went about eight times to Colombia. "I was meeting with Lucho (Luis Agustin Caicedo Velandia) the head of the Cali Cartel in Bogota . I was the first person to meet them after 3,000 kilos went missing. I had to explain what had happened even though it was nothing to do with me." But back on the streets of Liverpool and Manchester, the drugs Mee and Warren were importing were helping to fuel an explosion of inner-city violence as gangs battled for control of the cocaine market . Police in the Netherlands and the UK joined forces with customs in a bid to bring down the complex distribution network Mee and Warren had created. Codenamed 'Crayfish', a dedicated operation was launched with Dutch police tapping into the men's phone conversations - but initially officers struggled to decipher their Scouse and Manc accents, and their slang. But a breakthrough was coming, when it was discovered Mee was heading to Columbia to meet the Cali Cartel in one of the biggest cocaine deals known to the UK. When the half tonne of cocaine arrived at Warren's house, Dutch police moved in and arrested Warren, Mee and several other gang members. Interviewed on Sky documentary Liverpool Narcos, Mee said: "It was done within seconds really. They blew the windows out, flashbangs went in and stunt grenades went in. "Face downwards naked, they carried you by your hands and feet across the gravel into the back of a car." Mee would be sentenced to seven years in a Dutch triple-A category maximum security prison - with no chance of escape. In 2004, he returned to the UK, he began the 22-year sentence he had been given in his absence nine years previously in 1993. After serving a total of 15 years, he was released in 2012. Now in his 60s and having spent almost half his life behind bars, Mee says he's put his life of crime behind him. A successful artist - he studied for a fine arts degree while behind bars - his paintings have been exhibited in London galleries and sell for thousands, while he also says he's working on a book about his life. But given the chance, he told Terry Stone, he would 'change everything'. He said: "People see them as good times when you're in the Caribbean on a massive catamaran and things like that, but you're only there because of the s*** that you've left behind. "You're always looking behind you. It's always waiting for that knock on the door. It's a lonely life as well because even though you might be there with these people, these are just associates, right? These are not your friends and family that you're ostracized from completely. "It's not good. It's not good."
