AN international drug lord has been ordered to pay back £350 after making £4.6m from his illicit trade.

Jonathan Moorby is serving a 29 year prison sentence after being convicted of shipping kilos of Class A drugs into the region.

He even continued to run his lucrative cocaine business while on the run in Thailand and was jailed for another 14 years when he was finally caught.

The drug baron fled the country before his trial and he was sentenced to 15 years in 2014 for supplying cocaine and amphetamine.

The first conviction didn’t deter him form continuing to run his drug empire from South East Asia.

By August 2015 he was back in the game using encrypted handsets to distribute the orders to his team based in and around Stockton.

Judge Howard Crowson made the confiscation order for £350 after a proceeds of crime act investigation was carried out into the gangsters financial affairs.

In 2016, he was ordered to pay back more than half-a-million pounds by a judge but the money was never forthcoming while he was on the run.

The order made it clear that he must pay the sum demanded within three months or face six years jail in default.

However, the authorities were unable to recover the money.

During a short hearing at Teesside Crown Court all of Moorby's assets were signed over to the police – a figure totalling £349.27 – and he was ordered to serve an additional day in custody.

Kyra Badman, prosecuting, said the agreed total that Moorby had made from his drug empire was £4,589,549.74.

The Northern Echo: Jonathan MoorbyJonathan Moorby

Judge Crowson said: "There was not sufficient assets from the 2016 order to find the available amount and I therefore vary that down to a nominal sum of £1.

"The amount held in the Yorkshire Bank is £348.27 but if you are amalgamating the two orders - I have to say the available amount is £349.27 on the combined order and we will confiscate that sum."

Moorby was also ordered to serve one additional day in custody.