Kinahan crime boss jailed for another six years

The UK chief of the notorious Kinahan crime gang who masterminded a plot to stockpile weapons from his prison cell in order to get a reduced sentence, has been jailed for another six years. 

Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh, 57, had attempted to dupe the National Crime Agency (NCA) by leading them to a buried stash of weapons in the hope he could secure himself a lighter sentence over a £30million drug smuggling operation. 

Kavanagh ran the conspiracy from prison alongside his brother-in law Liam Byrne, 44, and Shaun Kent, 38.

From his cell where he was awaiting sentence, Kavanagh produced a map which led police to unearth two buried holdalls containing seven machine guns, three automatic handguns and an assault rifle. 

But the plot was foiled after incriminating messages on encrypted EncroChat exchanges — described as 'WhatsApp for criminals' — were cracked by French law enforcement and passed on to the NCA. 

These showed the trio had secretly hatched a plan to amass as many weapons as they could via their criminal contacts, before trying to trick the NCA by 'revealing' the cache. 

Kavanagh is currently serving a 21-year sentence for masterminding a £36million drug smuggling operation as well as three years consecutive for an unrelated firearms incident in 2020.  

Today, at the Old Bailey, Kavanagh was handed another six-year sentence for the stockpile plot, meaning he now faces a total of 30 years in prison. 

It marks a spectacular downfall for the drug kingpin following his arrest at his lavish fortified mansion, complete with reinforced doors and bulletproof glass, in Tamworth, Staffordshire.

Kavanagh was a key member of the global Kinahan drugs organisation that reaches out from Ireland and the UK to Dubai and with links to deadly cartels in South America.

When officers raided the property as part of a wider investigation to dismantle his drugs empire in January 2019, officers found weapons, including knives, baseball bats, swords and an illegal stun gun.

It was while serving a three-year sentence for possession of a stun gun, and on remand for the drugs charges, that Kavanagh ran the arms cache conspiracy from HMP Dovegate.

Today Judge Philip Katz, KC, said he regarded the conspiracy 'to stockpile the cache of weapons' and reveal them to the NCA as 'one overarching criminal plan' designed to cut Kavanagh's jail time.

He told him: 'You were in prison, and still able to pull the strings.

'The pleas of guilty came late, but in cases like this, better late than never.' Kavanagh, Byrne, from Dublin, and Kent, from Liverpool, had all admitted two charges of conspiring to possess a prohibited weapon, and two charges of conspiring to possess prohibited ammunition, between January 9, 2020 and June 3, 2021.

Kavanagh and Kent also admitted conspiring with others to pervert the course of justice.

Byrne was today jailed for five years while Kent received six years imprisonment.

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Kent has already served more than half of the time on remand and is eligible for release.

Byrne, who had to be expedited from Spain, received a five-year sentence.

Yesterday prosecutor Tom Forster KC said the case involved 'organised crime at a high level'.

He told the court: 'But for the NCA's possession of the EncroChat evidence there is every likelihood the plot would have been successful.' Between January 2020 and June 2021, the defendants agreed to 'acquire as many arms as possible' from the UK, Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Mr Forster said: 'Put shortly, Thomas Kavanagh's plan, with which the other defendants agreed and put into practice, was to assemble as many weapons and ammunition as possible, acquiring the arms from various criminals, then conceal them and finally reveal their whereabouts to the NCA.

'In this way, the conspirators intended to fool the authorities into concluding the assistance was genuine, when it was not, so that Thomas Kavanagh would be rewarded for helping the authorities to recover dangerous weapons by way of a considerable discount from his sentence.

'However, the true position was that he and his co-conspirators did not intend to provide any real assistance because they had orchestrated the acquisition of weapons and ammunition through their own serious criminality. It was a 'put up job'.' Mr Forster said the plot was laid bare over in encrypted messages on EncroChat, described as 'WhatsApp for criminals'.

Although Kavanagh did not use EncroChat himself, other conspirators referred to him by the nicknames 'Pops', 'Mick', 'Big Head' and 'Malla' or simply 'our mate', the court heard.

The defendants' confidence in their security was misplaced when in 2020, French authorities cracked the system, harvested data and shared it with British law enforcement.

The NCA's 'painstaking' investigation revealed the handles of conspirators from three months' worth of messages.

Kent was said to have performed several roles, including 'messenger boy' by receiving instructions from Kavanagh via a middleman in prison.

He then used his EncroChat device to relay instructions to others tasked with him to obtain the guns and ammunition, the court was told.

Byrne was a close criminal associate of Kavanagh as well as his brother-in-law and they lived near to each other in Tamworth, Staffordshire.

He acted on Kavanagh's direction to acquire firearms and ammunition and added 'much needed impetus' to progressing the plot.

Messages included Kent telling Byrne that Kavanagh had asked him to 'keep on about locating them things [firearms] for him mate'.

He added: 'He said try get as many of them as you can... only chance he's got on getting good result out of this case mate.'

The urgent messages continued when Kent received a message stating Kavanagh was 'under massive pressure and time's against him' to get the firearms in position before he was due to appear in court again.

Today NCA Branch Commander Ty Surgeon said: 'At the instruction of their leader Thomas Kavanagh, Shaun Kent and Liam Byrne orchestrated a cynical and dangerous plot to plant a cache of weapons so Kavanagh could direct the NCA to them and reduce his time in prison.

'These weapons were viable and deadly weapons that were in the hands of a criminal gang, loaded and ready for use in criminality. What this group didn't know is their Encrochat messages had been unveiled for law enforcement to see, showing every detail of their plan.

'The NCA's mission is to protect the public from serious and organised crime, and as this case shows, we will pursue every avenue, including overseas, to ensure criminals are brought to justice.'