Trucking boss who led luxury double life as drugs baron ordered to pay back £630,000 or face years more in jail
manchestereveningnews.co.ukA trucking boss who led a double life as drugs baron has been ordered to pay back £630,000. Thomas Maher, aged 42, was sentenced to 14 years and eight months in prison in December 2020 for moving drugs and dirty cash across Europe.
Before his activities were exposed he lived in a modest three bedroom detached house. But parked on the driveway at various times were a Range Rover, a Land Rover, a sleek, black Mercedes GLS worth £150,000, a BMW and a £70,000 imported Corvette.
Inside the home, on a modern estate in a suburb, were pieces of art - including a map of the world made from bullets. He also owned around £600,000 worth of watches and splashed out on holidays, spending £70,000 on breaks in around three years. READ MORE: Join the FREE Manchester Evening News WhatsApp community He would fly to Dubai, Mexico and New York - business class or first class.
He hired a private helicopter in New York. Evidence obtained by the National Crime Agency as part of Operation Venetic – the UK law enforcement response to the takedown of encrypted global communications service EncroChat – showed that he operated a transportation network spanning Europe, moving drugs into the UK and Ireland and the profits in the other direction.
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