To the family of his young Filipina wife, Canary Jane, he was Darren Wall, the kind and generous 44-year-old British ex-boxer who had swept her out of a life of poverty and into a world of comfort and glamour.

In the photos they shared on social media, they were a happy couple, enjoying expensive dinners and living a comfortable life in a quiet Parañaque subdivision. But behind this carefully constructed facade of a successful ex-pat was a dark and violent secret.

The man they knew as a loving husband and father was, in fact, a convicted criminal from the UK who, according to Philippine authorities, had reinvented himself in Manila as the ruthless leader of a brutal gang.

Darren Wall’s criminal history began long before he arrived in the Philippines in 2017. In the UK, he was not a wealthy man, but a working-class individual with a penchant for crime.

His most infamous caper occurred on Christmas Eve in 2012, when he and two accomplices attempted a spectacularly clumsy ATM heist. They tied a thick rope from their van to a cash machine and tried to drag it down the street.

The plan failed miserably, and while his accomplices were immediately caught, Wall staged a comically bold escape, jumping into the responding police car and attempting to drive away before ultimately being apprehended after a massive manhunt. He was sentenced to four years in prison for his various crimes.

Upon his release, Wall, seeking a new beginning where his past was unknown, bought a one-way ticket to Asia and landed in the Philippines.

Here, he could reinvent himself. He met Canary Jane, a young woman working as a bar girl, and began a new life. For a time, it seemed he had left his criminal ways behind. He married Canary Jane, they had a child, and he embraced the role of a family man.

However, according to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in the Philippines, Wall’s new life was funded not by a legitimate career, but by a swift and deep dive into Manila’s criminal underworld.

Authorities allege that the former boxer became a “Cᴏᴄᴀɪɴᴇ Baron,” the leader of a violent gang involved in kidnapping and drug trafficking. They claim he operated with a sense of impunity, protected by a payroll of at least five corrupt police officers.

His brazen and violent nature was put on full public display on Valentine’s Day, 2022. In a shocking incident captured on CCTV at a club in Makati, Wall was seen brutally assaulting another customer during an argument.

The footage shows him striking the man with a pool ball, then chasing him out into the street and threatening him with a 9mm Beretta pistol. The victims, who were severely injured, filed a police report.

For five weeks, Wall continued his life as if nothing had happened, even returning to the same club. But investigators were quietly building a case. On March 23, 2022, police, armed with an arrest warrant, stormed the club and took both Wall and his wife into custody.

Canary Jane was arrested for allegedly obstructing the police as they tried to apprehend her husband. During the arrest, police found six grams of Cᴏᴄᴀɪɴᴇ and the illegal firearm in Wall’s possession.

In custody, the story unraveled. Wall denied the charges, claiming the victims had pushed his wife. But the victims told a different story: a terrifying, unprovoked attack where Wall had held a gun in one man’s mouth and threatened to end his life for simply looking at him the wrong way.

As of the latest reports, Darren Wall is being held without bail, facing a string of serious charges for drugs, illegal possession of a firearm, and the violent assault. If convicted, the British “Cᴏᴄᴀɪɴᴇ Baron” who thought he had found a criminal paradise in the Philippines could face a sentence of life in prison, a final, decisive end to his violent and deceptive double life.