Drugs Lord who made millions ordered to pay back £112,000

A drugs lord who reportedly made millions through smuggling cocaine and cannabis has been ordered to pay back £112,000.

Philip Baron, from Salford, is serving an 18 year sentence after he was jailed in 2013.

Baron, who reportedly made £30 million, was the mastermind of an international drugs cartel which smuggled cocaine from South America to Spain, and then to Britain.

He had homes in Spain, the Republic of Ireland and the UK. Liverpool Crown Court was told that his empire had imported £110 million worth of drugs into the UK so he could lead a 'lavish lifestyle'.

Baron has now been brought back before the judge who sentenced him for a Proceeds of Crime hearing so the authorities could seize back some of his profits.

William Baker, prosecuting, told how Baron was believed to have amassed a £29.5m fortune but his only available assets that investigators could find totalled £112,000.

Baron, 60, did not contest the hearing and Judge David Aubrey ordered that the entire sum of £112,000 – which involves £100,000 cash found in his possession and the rest seized in Ireland – be confiscated.

If the money was not handed over in three months he faced an extra 12 months imprisonment.

He admitted importing cocaine and cannabis and money laundering, and he and 28 members of his gang were jailed. They had smuggled more than 52 tonnes of drugs into the UK.

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) said the group had smuggled drugs over 15 years and laundered millions of pounds of illegal profits.Baron, who masqueraded as a legitimate businessman, also ran a sophisticated cannabis smuggling operation alongside his trade in Class A cocaine.