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An Irish transport contractor faces a lengthy jail term in the UK after admitting to drug trafficking and money laundering, according to a court.
Judge Brian Cummings told Thomas Maher (39) that he will likely receive a “substantial” prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to several crimes in Liverpool Crown Court on Friday.
Maher, who appeared via video link from HMP Liverpool, had been arrested in October last year after the deaths of 39 Vietnamese found in a shipping container in Essex. His home in Warrington, Cheshire, was raided by police, but he was not charged in connection with the deaths.
He was arrested again by the National Crime Agency on June 30 and charged with the other crimes.
On Friday, the father-of-three pleaded guilty to four counts of conspiracy to commit a crime abroad, between March 28 and May 11 this year.
They included two counts of conspiracy to import Class A drugs into Ireland and two counts of transferring criminal property to Ireland, namely € 300,000 in April and € 600,000 in May.
In requiring Maher to remain in custody until his sentencing on December 1, Judge Cummings told the defendant: “On the face of it, you are facing a substantial custody sentence, but the exact nature and scope of the sentence will be decided. next time. “
The facts of the case were not opened during the brief hearing.
Maher is believed to have been coordinating a transport network to facilitate drug imports into the UK via Ireland and the transport of money from Ireland to the Netherlands using encrypted EncroChat phones.
EncroChat phones were used by major criminals in Europe as they were considered indecipherable by the police. But the secret communication system was hacked by police in June, leading to hundreds of arrests across Europe.
He pleaded not guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit a crime abroad, that of conspiracy to cause serious bodily harm to Ronan Hughes in Ireland last April. This charge will not be prosecuted, the court heard.
Hughes, 40, of Co Armagh, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey last month to 39 counts of murder. He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to aid illegal immigration.
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