British aristocratic descendant of Filipino drug lord shot dead in the street

The drug lord's father was a British aristocrat who fled to the Philippines in the 1970s to escape fraud charges.

Antony Moynihan with a dancer. Photo: Hulton

Drug lord Aurora Moynihan, 45, was shot dead on the streets of Manila yesterday. Moynihan was the daughter of notorious British playboy Baron Antony Moynihan.

Antony Moynihan was born in 1936 to Patrick Moynihan and Irene Helen Candy. His grandfather, who introduced surgical gloves to Britain, was made a baronet and then a senator in 1929.

In 1955, Antony Moynihan married Ann Herbert, an actress and model. After a family quarrel and Antony's affair, he left England for Australia, intending to work on his uncle's sheep farm. In Sydney, he met Shirin Berry, a Malaysian stripper.

Returning to England in 1957, he reconciled with Ann but their relationship was short-lived. He married Shirin in 1958 and moved with his new wife to Ibiza, Spain, to open a nightclub. However, the business failed and he returned to England.

He then opened a café called El Toro in Beckenham, Kent, England, but it failed again. So Moynihan and his wife organized a belly dancing tour of Europe and the Far East.

After his father's death in 1965, he became the 3rd Baron Moynihan and held a seat in the British House of Lords. However, his opinions in meetings were constantly considered silly.

In 1968, he married for the third time, to a Filipino belly dancer, Luthgarda Fernandez, whose family owned a chain of massage parlors in Manila.

Antony Moynihan and his third wife Luthgarda Fernandez - mother of drug lord Aurora Moynihan. Photo: Express

In 1970, he faced 57 charges - including fraud, fraudulent trading and defrauding a casino, buying a Rolls-Royce with a forged check. To escape the "storm", he left England again for Spain and then the Philippines.

At the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales in 1971, the judge called him the "evil genius" behind a series of fraudulent acts. (Antony was not present in court.)

In the 1970s, Antony became involved in drug trafficking, as well as racketeering and prostitution. In 1980, an Australian Royal Commission alleged that he was involved in smuggling drugs from Manila into Sydney.

However, he was not prosecuted. Antony was said to have had the patronage of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, whom he described as his "drinking buddy". At one point he even ran a brothel just 100 metres from the British ambassador's residence in the Philippines.

Aurora (right) and her sister Maritoni Fernandez. Photo: The Sun

After Marcos was overthrown in 1986, Antony lost his solid cover. In 1987, he was banned from leaving the Philippines pending an investigation into drug and prostitution charges.

Antony died of a heart attack in 1991. He had five wives and five children. However, his only son did not inherit the title of baron.

Drug lord Aurora Moynihan was the daughter of Antony and his third wife. When the couple divorced in 1979, Aurora lived with her father and entered the criminal world, joining a Filipino gang. Aurora became a crystal meth dealer whose customers were mostly Filipino celebrities. She was arrested in 2013 during a police raid.

“Antony was a notorious criminal,” said a Moynihan family friend. “The problem was that Aurora was following in his footsteps.”

According to VNE