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McCarthy clan’s cocaine supply route smashed as ‘transporter’ crew tracked down

Anthony Terry was described as ‘the kingpin’ of the outfit which provided the service to underworld drugs gangs.

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A major drugs supply route for the Limerick-based McCarthy crime clan has been smashed after UK police tracked down the ‘transporter’ crew making the deliveries.

Anthony Terry was described as ‘the kingpin’ of the outfit which provided the service to underworld drugs gangs.

Terry had been on the run from Limerick Prison since 2006, weeks after he got a four year sentence for trafficking €40,000 of cannabis in the city.

Since running from Limerick University Hospital where he had been brought, Terry had been using a property in Wolverhampton linked to the McCarthys, according to Sunday World sources.

Officers from the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) traced the gang’s movements in 2020 and 2021 after their encrypted Encrochat phones were hacked by police.

Terry was seen as the man who directed two drivers to smuggle drugs in concealed vehicles from mainland Europe into Ireland.

They found that one of Terry’s drivers, 62-year-old Michael Collis, travelled to the Hook of Holland near Rotterdam Port between July and September 2020 to collect a drugs shipment.

Investigators then tracked his movements back to England and through Belfast before he distributed the drug shipment to the Limerick-based crime gang.

In April 2020, the same driver collected an estimated €1.2m worth of cocaine in the Netherlands before he travelled to Wicklow to hand over 5.5kg of the drug, with a street value of just under €400,000.

The Encrochats also revealed Collis had delivered around 8kg of cocaine, with an estimated street value of €560,000, to dealers at an unknown location in Ireland.

Terry’s time on the run came to end in February 2021 when he was caught with €1.8 million worth of cocaine in Belfast after police cracked the gang’s encrypted phone service.

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Collis admitted to importing cocaine and conspiracy to comment crime abroad, while another driver who was recruited to bring drugs into Ireland, Joshpal Singh Kothiria (33), was convicted after a two-week trial.

A co-accused who delivered drugs around the UK, Birmingham man Mohammed Omar Khan (40), was also convicted of conspiring to supply Class A drugs.

The Sunday World previously revealed how Eds McCarthy had allegedly built up the clan’s drugs business after moving from Limerick to Birmingham.

There he was able to forge links with the Kinahan cartel’s main man in the UK, Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh, until his arrest and 21-year prison sentence. McCarthy has previously denied being involved in organised crime.

Mick Pope of the NCA said last week after Terry’s conviction: “This was a sophisticated operation to smuggle drugs into the UK and Ireland. Terry was the kingpin of this group, offering a service to criminals who needed to obtain drugs or move money.”

Terry, who got 18 years for the Belfast cocaine stash, is likely to be sent back to prison in Ireland when he finishes his sentence. He and his drivers will be sentenced at a later date for the conspiracy to ship drugs.