One of Britain's most notorious drug smugglers has been told to pay £185m – or face another 10 years in jail. Curtis Warren, the only drug dealer to make it on to the Sunday Times Rich List, faces a confiscation enforcement hearing this week in Jersey, where he was jailed in 2007 over a £1m cannabis-smuggling plot.

Authorities believe the 50-year-old has benefited to the tune of £185m from a global empire of drug trafficking that once saw him named as Interpol's most wanted. Warren, a former bouncer from Liverpool, who has spent all but five weeks of the last 17 years in jail, says he does not have anything like that amount of money.

Speaking exclusively to the Guardian, he said: "It's pathetic. I've been in jail 17 years. It's such a fantastic figure that it can't be met in any currency unless they are expecting Turkish lire or [old] Italian money, which is a million-note job."

He believes authorities in Jersey, working closely with the UK's National Crime Agency, simply want to keep him behind bars. If he loses the case and doesn't pay up, he will be given an extra 10 years in jail.

As things stand, Warren could be released as early as January next year, after serving half of his 13-year Jersey sentence. Ever since his arrest in St Helier in the summer of 2007, he has been shuttled around various prisons, including Belmarsh in south London, Full Sutton in the East Riding of Yorkshire and La Moye, Jersey's only jail.

This month he agreed to measures restricting his freedoms on his release – including access to mobile phones and phone boxes.

Keir Starmer, the outgoing director of public prosecutions, said at the time: "Curtis Warren has a long history of serious offending at home and abroad. By agreeing today to this order being imposed, he has admitted that he has been involved in serious criminality.

"There are very real grounds to believe that without this order being made, Curtis Warren would continue to be involved in serious crime. This order will severely curtail his ability to do so."

Warren claims that what profit he had made from a life of crime was taken by the Dutch authorities when he was released from prison in Holland in 2007 – just five weeks before being arrested in Jersey for another drugs plot.

In 1997, he was jailed for 12 years after being found guilty of importing 317kg of cocaine into Holland from Venezuela and for the possession of MDMA, 1,076kg of cannabis, guns, three hand grenades and 940 canisters of CS gas. In 2001, another four-year term was added to his sentence for the manslaughter of a fellow inmate.

Asked whether he had squirrelled away millions by investing in football clubs, petrol stations, houses and ski resorts, Warren said he had "nothing. Holland have got it all. Holland done a massive, massive investigation."

He added: "There is no money. It's a simple exercise of putting me in jail. There is no money, I've been in jail 17 years. There's no money."

Warren made headlines when he walked free from Newcastle crown court in the early 1990s after a case against him collapsed, ostensibly because of lack of evidence – although his co-accused, Brian Charrington, turned out to be a high-level, paid informer for the North-East Regional Crime Squad, which proved unhelpful to the prosecution. The men were accused of importing 2,205kg of cocaine into the country, hidden in lead ingots in 1991.

A book written about Warren, called Cocky, alleges that he goaded police officers on his way out of court by saying: "I'm off to spend my £87m from the first shipment and you can't touch me." Warren denies ever making this comment, saying it was a lie made up by detectives who could not believe he was walking free.

"Do you know why that was said? By them. They were so pissed off with the judge that day, they wanted to embarrass him. How do you get a man who sits in a police station, sits in many, many police stations since 13 years of age and never gives comments in an interview, come out of court and [say]: 'By the way, I'm off to spend my ... '? It doesn't add up. It is crazy, it's nonsense. It doesn't make sense … they were so angry with the judge the only way to get back at him was to kick him in the face."

Warren claims there is "no evidence of any fantastic lifestyle or anything like that" and that it was unfair that Jersey law requires him to prove a negative. "I have to prove I haven't got any assets. How do I prove that?" he said.

In 2005 Warren featured in the Sunday Times Rich List, which estimated his wealth then as £76m, although other estimates have suggested he amassed up to £300m from crime.

Warren was transported back to Jersey last week under armed guard and is expected to appear in court on Monday amid tight security – a measure he thinks is unnecessary, despite admitting killing another prisoner in his Dutch prison in the late 1990s after getting into a jailyard brawl.

"I've never ever escaped, jumped bail or anything like that in my life, and I think it's a bit late to start now. If I want to escape from here or any establishment, I've got to take a guard hostage. Do you think I'm going to give myself a life sentence? Logically. Youse can all say whatever you like about me, from reading books and all that, but one thing I'm not is crazy. I have some faults but I hope that's not one of them. And I think, if it was, I think it would have manifested a long time ago rather than late in life."

In documents served to Jersey's Rroyal court, the island's solicitor general, Howard Sharp QC, said: "Warren is not known to have, or have had, any or any substantial legitimate income at any time."

He added: "A man of Warren's criminal standing and connections has access to a wide variety of resources, methods, and personnel in pursuance of the concealment of assets around the world."

• This article was amended on 24 October 2013. The earlier version said Curtis Warren faces trial this week in Jersey; it is a confiscation enforcement hearing, not a trial.