Trucking boss living double life as drugs baron spent £70k on holidays in three years

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A trucking boss who lived in a modest three-bedroom home was actually living a double life as a drug baron.Thomas Maher was sentenced to 14 years and eight months in prison in December 2020 for transporting drugs and cash across Europe.

He has also been ordered to pay back £630,000.The 42-year-old lived in a modest three-bedroom detached house but had a string of expensive vehicles including a Mercedes GLS valued at £150,000 and a £70,000 Corvette.He also owned around £600,000 worth of watches and spent around £70,000 in holidays in just three years, reports the MEN.

Evidence obtained by the National Crime Agency as part of Operation Venetic showed that he operated a transportation network spanning Europe, moving drugs into the UK and Ireland and the profits in the other direction by using the encrypted chat service EncroChat.On Monday, a judge at Liverpool Crown Court made a confiscation order for £629,159, including Maher's Warrington home, as well as jewellery, watches, vehicles and other items, or face a futher six years in jail.

Maher was conducting up to a dozen conversations a day using the 'EncroChat' network, a court previously heard, providing transport and contacts for smuggling across Europe.He was snared for his part in the criminal network after 39 Vietnamese people suffocated in a lorry in Essex.