A convicted killer who was a member of the racist 'Mudmen' gang will only have to pay back £44,000 of his £3m cocaine fortune.
Liverpool man Daniel Masher, 34, was caught following the EncroChat-encrypted phone hack which exposed an organised crime group trafficking multi-kilos of cocaine, crack and heroin between Liverpool and South Wales. Masher, the only dealer at the "Liverpool end" of the conspiracy, sourced the drugs here in the North West and distributed them across Cardiff, Newport and Porthcawl.
The gang was dealing in hundreds of kilograms of drugs worth several million pounds. The ECHO previously reported how Masher himself was involved in moving 90kg of Class A drugs. Messages in court revealed the extent of the conspiracy, with one message to a fellow gangster revealing he had seven customers owing them £592,000.
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At the Welsh end of the conspiracy, the gang was found to have been paying former Liverpool FC prospect Layton Maxwell to use his Cardiff home as a stash-house. Police from the South Wales Regional Organised Crime Unit, known as Tarian, found drugs worth £6m and £2.5m in dirty cash inside the property.
Another gang member, Martin Askew, used a "specially adapted van disguised as an NHS patient transport vehicle" to deliver cocaine and heroin during the Covid-19 pandemic. When South Wales Police stopped Askew in June 2020 and asked if there was anything illegal in the van, he replied: "Yes, two keys of white." Officers found two packages hidden in a storage panel near a wheel arch, each containing a kilogram of high-purity cocaine.
A judge at Cardiff Crown Court previously said Masher was a "leading light" of the conspiracy, although all 14 defendants were blasted as they were jailed in October 2022 for playing a "significant role". Masher, originally from Garston, was locked up for 18 years. However, the judge said the gang members "nearest the source" of importation had not yet been brought to justice.
WalesOnline reported Masher was hauled back before the courts last week for a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing. The court heard he had benefited to the tune of £3,225,740 from his involvement but only has assets worth £44,773. Lloyd Stapleton, who also appeared in the hearing, was found to have benefited to the tune of £275,000 but only has assets worth £19,432.
Judge Jeremy Jenkins ordered Masher to pay £44,773 and Stapleton to pay £19,432 within three months or serve a default period of an additional five months' imprisonment each.
Violent thug Masher had been previously jailed after he plunged a knife into the abdomen of Marlon Moran on May 13 2007. Masher and his associates, a loose collective of thugs known as 'The Mudmen', had been involved in a bitter and long-running feud with Mr Moran which involved regular racist abuse.
Mr Moran, 21, had first confronted the then 18-year-old Masher and his cronies Callum Kennedy, Jordan Crawford and a 16-year-old boy outside Masher's home in Byron Close, Garston.
Liverpool Crown Court heard during a trial that later Mr Moran had been outside his nearby home in Shelley Grove with his girlfriend, sister, her boyfriend and his cousin. It was alleged that the defendants arrived on the scene armed with weapons, including knives, shouting racist abuse and threatening him, said the prosecuting barrister.
Masher threw a metal bar towards Mr Moran and shouted: "Come on, you're getting it, you black b*****d, you are getting killed today." He then plunged a knife more than 10 inches into Mr Moran's abdomen, severing major blood vessels.
However, Masher claimed in court that he had been defending himself and was forced to lash out with a kitchen knife otherwise "I would have had my head smashed in". Masher was cleared of murder by a jury but convicted of manslaughter. The other three defendants were cleared of murder and allowed to walk free.
According to reports from the time, Masher smirked in the dock as he was handed an indefinite sentence for public protection with a minimum of three-and-a-half years in prison while a judge branded him "both racist and dangerous".
Afterwards, the heartbroken Moran family endured months of horrific taunts and sickening gestures from the Mudmen gang. Banana skins were left on their window sills, racist graffiti daubed on their walls and abuse shouted at them in the street.
In October 2008, 10 racist yobs, aged 16 to 20, were each hit with two-year anti-social behaviour orders (ABOS) for terrorising the mourning family. The group included Masher's younger brother, then 17-year-old Carl Masher, as well as Kennedy and Crawford.
Mr Moran's mum said: "Marlon died because he stood up when his family were coming under attack. He loved us all and would do anything for us. We all miss him every day."
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