Mum still loves son who became one of UK's most notorious drug lords despite threats to kill family
A mum has insisted she still loves her drug kingpin son - despite the fact he's threatened to kill the whole family.
Jon Moorby, from Teesside, has spent much of his life behind bars and is currently serving a 29-year sentence.
The 51-year-old - once known as 'Mr Big' - was involved in a multi-million pound drugs conspiracy, which saw chartered helicopters drop half a tonne of class A drugs into the back gardens of holiday homes in Kent.
He was arrested in 2014, when Interpol tracked him down on the Thai island of Koh Samui - though they didn't find the £4,589,549.74 profit Moorby was found to have made.
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Now he survives on the £40 a week his parents send him to spend on protein shakes and toiletries at HMP Frankland, where he is under high security with two guards accompanying him every time he leaves his cell.
His mum Susan - who is housebound due to osteoporosis and arthritis - said he veered away from the right path at an early age, taking steroids in a bid to get stronger.
She told TeessideLive: "He needed to protect himself from bullies. He needed to be able to stand up to them. When he left he started going to the gym everyday. He wanted to get stronger and stronger.
"He was getting involved with worse and worse people and that's how it started."
His drug-dealing earned him numerous convictions, and while awaiting trial in 2014, after hundreds of thousands of pounds of cocaine and amphetamines were seized from his home, he fled to Thailand.
While living under the radar in a luxury villa in Ko Samui, Moorby restarted his drugs operation.
Moorby had two daughters with different Thai women and said he fell in love with the country, but he was caught in 2017.
Moorby was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2014 after being convicted at Teesside Crown Court in his absence, and he is now serving this in addition to the 14 years he was handed for running his cocaine operation whilst in Asia.
Asked how Moorby had so much influence and power, Susan replied: "People were scared. He can be very cruel.
"When he was in Thailand he needed money to bribe the police there. When his older brother said he couldn't send it - he had lost his job and didn't have thousands of pounds - he threatened to kill us all.
"He's put us through a living hell. But we still love him."
Moorby is appealing his latest prison sentence and hopes to be out in just over two years.
But Susan said he can't stay around Teesside if he does get released.
"He's got a lot of enemies round here and the police would be watching him like a hawk," she said.
"He wants to go back to Lalida and their daughter Lily, in Thailand. Her family have a rice farm. We pray for Jon everyday."
Jake Massey