A gangster who helped smuggle drugs and dirty cash across Europe has been ordered to hand over part of his ill-gotten empire - including his home and luxury watches. Former haulage boss Thomas Maher is currently serving 14 years in prison for using the EncroChat network to ferry drugs from Holland into the UK and Ireland.
The 42-year-old, from Warrington, was a vital “middle man” who picked locations for lorries to stop and make the drug handovers. He was originally arrested after 39 dead bodies of Vietnamese nationals were discovered in a lorry in Essex in October 2019, the Liverpool Echo reports.
The dad-of-three was once the owner of that HGV, which was still registered in his wife's name even after it was sold, but he was released with no further action taken in relation to the deaths. Just months later, National Crime Agency investigators swooped at his home in Wiltshire Close, Warrington, after experts smashed the encrypted EncroChat phone network.
