The scene outside the Magistrate’s Court yesterday for the appeal by Curtis Warren and his gang against their convictions and sentences

A JUROR who was mysteriously removed during the trial of notorious drugs baron Curtis Warren may have been ‘nobbled’, it was suggested in court yesterday.

And it was also alleged that another of the jurors on the case – all of whom received special police protection during the trial – received ‘silent phone calls’ and that ‘strange characters’ were present throughout.

The Magistrate’s Court was once again ringed by armed police yesterday as Warren and members of his gang appealed against their convictions and sentences.

Last year they were jailed for 50 years between them – with Warren getting 13 years – for their part in a bungled £1 million cannabis smuggling plot. Following the high-profile trial last September, John Welsh (43) was jailed for 12 years, James O’Brien (45) for ten and Jason Woodward (22), Paul Hunt ( 27) and Oliver Lucas (23) all received five-year prison sentences.

• Full report in today’s Jersey Evening Post