Cheshire: Thomas Maher associate Paul O’Brien jailed

Paul O’Brien, a career criminal, has been jailed for 21 years following a National Crime Agency investigation into him trafficking drugs and dirty cash between Ireland and the Netherlands.

The 56-year-old, from Uxbridge in west London, was identified as part of Operation Venetic – the UK’s response to the takedown of the encrypted criminal communications platform EncroChat.

He was found to have worked with 42-year-old Thomas Maher, of Wiltshire Close in Woolston, who in December 2020 was sentenced to more than 14 years in prison at Liverpool Crown Court for facilitating the movement of drugs and cash across Europe.

Maher operated a transportation network spanning Europe, moving drugs into the UK and Ireland and the profits in the other direction.

Arrangements for transporting the cocaine and 900,000 euros in cash were discovered in EncroChat messages between Maher and O’Brien, who was using the handle ‘ONEDIAMONDGEE’ on the encrypted network.

Conversations between the pair evidenced that on the morning of April 4, 2020, two vehicles – a HGV and a car – had met near the village of Uddel in the Netherlands and exchanged the drugs – which could have been worth up to £1million if sold in the UK.

Thomas Maher lived a life of luxury on the back of his criminal activity

Maher notified O’Brien that their couriers had successfully brought the cocaine into the UK later that day, and arrangements were made for it to be collected in Ireland.

On April 10, Maher organised for 300,000 euros belonging to O’Brien to be collected near Louth in Ireland and transported to the Netherlands by car.

A month later, on May 11, a second pick-up of 600,000 euros was arranged by Maher for O’Brien, again to be taken by couriers from Ireland to the Netherlands.

The exchange took place at a bus station in Drogheda, before Garda officers conducting a surveillance operation moved in to intercept the cash and arrest couriers Jason Reed, 42, Thomas Rooney, 53, and Catherine Dawson, 46.

All three were later convicted and sentenced – Reed to seven years’ imprisonment in 2021, Rooney to six years in 2022 and Dawson to three years and nine months, suspended for five years, also in 2022.

O’Brien was identified as the ‘ONEDIAMONDGEE’ user after his EncroChat device was seized on May 29, 2020, when he was arrested by Metropolitan Police officers at his Bourne Avenue home.

Police at Maher's Wiltshire Close home in Woolston

NCA investigators later arrested him for the cocaine and cash trafficking conspiracy.

He subsequently pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy to commit a crime abroad, and at Isleworth Crown Court yesterday, Friday, a judge sentenced him to 21 years imprisonment.

Martin Clarke, senior investigating officer at the National Crime Agency, said: “O’Brien is an established organised crime figure, as shown by his ability to join forces with a hugely influential drug trafficker like Thomas Maher.

“Together, they moved cocaine and hundreds of thousands of pounds in cash across Europe.

“The crucial evidence obtained from his EncroChat handset laid bare O’Brien’s trafficking operation, leaving him with no option but to plead guilty.

“The NCA is committed to targeting the controllers of international organised crime, who think they can distance themselves from their illegal activity and evade justice.

“As Maher and now O’Brien have found, there is no limit to our determination to pursue those who see themselves as criminal kingpins and bring them to account.”

Maher was snared following an NCA surveillance operation

Thomas Maher came onto the NCA’s radar during the investigation into the deaths of 39 Vietnamese nationals in a lorry in Purfleet in October 2019.

The tractor unit involved was previously owned by Maher, and was still registered in his wife’s name after it was sold.

A separate NCA investigation later unearthed the full extent of his transportation network, which spanned Europe moving illegal commodities for organised criminals.

In May this year, he was ordered to pay back more than £630,000 in criminal profits following a financial investigation by the NCA.

Maher bragged about being involved in organised crime for more than 20 years and even paid himself less than minimum wage for tax purposes.

However, he lived a luxurious lifestyle, spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on cars, holidays and jewellery.

Cash seized by police linked to Maher's operations

A confiscation order was made for £629,159.15, including his detached Woolston house, cars, lorries, jewellery, a number of high-value watches, artwork and gold ingots bought in Dubai.

Maher was released with no further action taken by Essex Police regarding the lorry deaths, but a subsequent seven-month surveillance operation saw NCA officers watch Maher meet with criminal associates at hotels and in public spaces in the north west to organise the trafficking of cocaine from the Netherlands to the UK and Ireland.

As well as drugs, Maher also helped to facilitate the movement of large sums of cash, charging a commission for his involvement.

NCA officers arrested Maher on June 13, 2020, at his home in Woolston after receiving intelligence that he planned to leave the country.

Police executed a search warrant at his Wiltshire Close home, with two Range Rovers, a Chevrolet sports car and a motorbike seized.

EncroChat messages revealed in April 2020 he orchestrated the collection and delivery of at least 21 kilos of cocaine from locations in the Netherlands.

Maher's vehicles were confiscated by police

Associates reported back to Maher when the drugs were picked up, transported and arrived at their final destination in Ireland.

In one exchange of messages, Maher discussed the best ports to use with a co-conspirator. He told him: “I'm at this game the last 20 odd years pal, I'm not an over nighter so I know the way of plays.”

In another exchange, he joked how he was in a great position to take advantage once coronavirus lockdown restrictions were eased, saying: “Once we get this travel ban lifted…we be laughing mate. I’m telling u that’s why I’m not stressing yet.”

As well as drugs, Maher arranged for €305,000 to be transported from Ireland to Holland on behalf of one of his associates, whom he charged a commission for his involvement.

An Garda Síochána in Drogheda, Ireland, seized a further €600,000 in transit and arrested three people. Maher arranged for the movement of this cash.

Upon his release from jail, he will be subject to a serious crime prevention order, restricting his communications, finances and ownership of companies.