A CAREER criminal who trafficked drugs and dirty money between Ireland and the Netherlands has been jailed for 21 years. It follows a four-year National Crime Agency investigation.

Paul O’Brien, 56, of Bourn Avenue, Hillingdon, was identified as part of Operation Venetic, the UK’s response to taking down the encrypted communications platform, EncroChat. 

He was found to have worked with 42-year-old Thomas Maher, who in December 2020 was sentenced to more than 14 years in prison for enabling the movement of drugs and cash across Europe.

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 showed that, on the morning of April 4, 2020, two vehicles – an HGV and a car – had met near the village of Uddel in the Netherlands and exchanged the drugs, worth up to £1m in street valye.

Maher told O’Brien their couriers had successfully brought the cocaine into the UK later that day. 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 moved in to intercept the cash and arrest couriers Jason Reed, 42, Thomas Rooney, 53, and Catherine Dawson, 46.

O’Brien was identified as the ‘ONEDIAMONDGEE’ user after his EncroChat device was seized in May 2020 when he was arrested by Met officers at his Hillingdon home. 

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.

Martin Clarke, senior investigating officer at the NCA, 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.