Two Dublin criminals who have held senior positions in the Kinahan cartel’s Irish and British operations, Liam Byrne and Thomas “Bomber” Kavanagh, are now expected to face trial on firearms charges in Britain in September. The trial of the two men, and their co-accused, was expected to last for six weeks.
They appeared before the Old Bailey in London on Monday, via video link, for the latest hearing in their case, which allegedly involves two separate firearms conspiracies in Britain. The British national crime agency (NCA), which has conducted the investigation, claims Mr Byrne is linked to both alleged conspiracies.
Mr Byrne is accused of conspiring with a 36-year-old Liverpool man, Daniel McLoughlin, and others to possess firearms and ammunition between April and May 2020. He is also accused of conspiring to possess firearms and ammunition between January 2020, and June 2021.
In relation the charges with the later dates, he is accused of conspiring with Jack Kavanagh (23) of Tamworth, Staffordshire, and Shaun Kent (35) of Liverpool, and another man. Jack Kavanagh is the son of Thomas “Bomber” Kavanagh and is also Liam Byrne’s nephew.
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While Mr Byrne (43) and Mr Kavanagh (55) were due to be arraigned on Monday, that has been adjourned to March 1st. Mr Byrne has been in prison, on remand, in Britain since last month, when he was extradited by the Spanish authorities following his arrest in Mallorca last June. Mr Kavanagh is also in a UK jail, serving 21 years for trafficking drugs into Britain.
The charges against the men include conspiring to: possess a firearm without a certificate; possess ammunition for a firearm without a certificate; possess a prohibited weapon; possess prohibited ammunition; pervert the course of justice. The charges result from messages harvested from EncroChat, the encrypted messaging platform used by crime gangs and infiltrated by international law enforcement.
Those messages allegedly link the men to a gang, based in Britain, that was acquiring and selling firearms and ammunition to other crime gangs. A haul of 11 firearms linked to the alleged gun running conspiracy was, according to the NCA, recovered in the Republic after information supplied by Mr Kavanagh.
Along with senior cartel figures Kavanagh and Byrne, three other men also face charges. Mr Kavanagh’s son, Jack and Mr Kent face the same five charges while Mr McLoughlin faces the same four ammunition and weapons charges, though he is not charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Mr Kavanagh was jailed in 2022 for 21 years in Britain for his lead role in importing consignments of drugs into Britain valued at approximately €35 million. His son Jack and Mr Byrne were arrested in Spain – Malaga and Mallorca respectively – last June on foot of extradition requests from the British authorities.
Mr Byrne’s brother, David (34), was killed in the Hutch gang attack at the Regency Hotel, Dublin, in 2016, and he fled Ireland after that attack. His assets, including his home in Raleigh Square, Crumlin, were seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau in 2018. While Mr Byrne initially settled in Britain after leaving Ireland, he later left for Dubai after the NCA inquiry into him, Mr Kavanagh and their associates, gathered pace.
Mr Byrne travelled to Mallorca for a family holiday in June and was arrested there while Jack Kavanagh was detained days earlier as he was travelling through Malaga on his way from Dubai to Turkey.
The investigation into the men, which was part of Operation Venetic, has led NCA officers to believe Mr Byrne, Jack Kavanagh and Mr Kent “conspired to pervert the course of justice by planning to reveal the location of weapons in an attempt to get Thomas Kavanagh a reduced prison sentence”.
“These charges are a major milestone in what has been a long and complex international investigation,” NCA regional head of investigations Craig Turner said last year.
“We will continue to work with our partners to target criminals who we suspect are operating at the highest levels of organised crime impacting on the UK.”
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