Jailed Kinahan thug must pay €700k or face longer stretch

Maher has to hand over cars, watches, house and artwork

- MICHAEL O'TOOLE

A TRUCKER who was locked up for smuggling Kinahan cartel drugs into Ireland has been told to stump up more than €700,000 - or face extra jail time.

Offaly-born Thomas Maher is already serving a 14-year term after he admitted drugs and money laundering offences and now an English judge has hit him with a so-called confiscation order which is a proceeds of crime fine.

He has to agree to pay £630,000 - €720,000 and if he refuses, he will be given six more years in prison.

The order, handed down by a judge at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday, means Maher, 42, has to hand over his house in northern England, cars, lorries, jewellery, a number of high-value watches, artwork and gold ingots bought in Dubai.

The judge gave Maher three months to pay or the extra sentence will kick in.

Cops know Maher smuggled at least €4.5 million of cocaine into Ireland in 2020, but suspect he brought in multiples of that amount previously including for the mob-controlled by Daniel Kinahan, 45.

Maher is suspected of helping several gangs get their drugs into Ireland - but his scam came to an end when French and Dutch cops smashed the Encrochat mobile phone system that he and hundreds of other criminals around Europe thought was safe.