Mob boss Liam Byrne faces new assets seizure after building up portfolio of clubs and houses

 • 6h ago

Freddie Thompson and Bomber Kavanagh© Provided by Independent.ie

Cartel member Liam Byrne will face a second assets investigation with UK police looking at investments in properties in Liverpool and businesses on Mediterranean Islands of Mallorca and Ibiza.

It is understood Byrne had hooked up with a well-known Liverpool businessman with interests in clubs, office complexes and private residential developments before he moved to Dubai last year.

Byrne had been threatening other investors for debts and outstanding payments he claimed he was owed and had regularly attended business meetings regarding properties in a large portfolio.

He had even holidayed with the well-known man who has properties in Mallorca and claimed to be representing him in menacing phone calls made from Dubai in recent months.

Officers suspect Byrne owns properties on Mallorca and that he has invested in a top nightclub in San Antonio on Ibiza along with his long time pal Graham ‘The Wig’ Whelan.

The club came to light during a probe into mob driver Paul Gray, a brother-in-law of Freddie Thompson’s brother Richie, who lost a house and a watch to the CAB.

Byrne will be stripped of identified assets under a proceeds of crime case which is under way by the UK’s National Crime Agency, which wants to put him on trial on weapons charges.

It is understood a wider investigation is already under way into the finances of Byrne, his brother-in-law Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh and their connections with the super-wealthy caravan millionaires Maurice Sines and James Crickmore, along with other rich businessmen suspected of laundering money for them.

Sines, who owns a collection of expensive homes and cars, was identified during a CAB probe into Byrne’s assets in Ireland.

Along with his business partner Crickmore, CAB documents stated that the pair were under investigation for their involvement in VAT and VRT fraud in the UK along with laundering the proceeds of criminal activity and under-declaring income tax.

Their links to the Dublin branch of the Kinahan Organised Crime gang came to light after the murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel.

Crickmore’s company was found to have transferred funds electronically to LS Active Car Sales, Byrne’s former business, which provided the seed capital for it to start trading.

The pair had also purchased a property at Raleigh Square in Crumlin, Dublin, where Byrne once lived and were using the same builder, Glen Byrne, jailed for money laundering, to renovate the house.

When Liam Byrne moved to the UK he resided in a house on Dosthill Road owned by Sines and used one of his caravan park addresses to set up a new business.

The 42-year-old is planning to fight extradition from Mallorca where he was picked up this week after sneaking in to meet with family members on the island where his brother in law Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh owns a spectacular waterside villa at Cala D’Or.

It is not expected that he will be successful as sources say the NCA have a rock-solid case against him based on Encrochat messages which have been decrypted and which link him directly the weapons-dealing.

Byrne has long been a flash drug dealer who has flaunted his wealth with impunity, drawing a huge amount of attention on those he mixes with.

His party-loving son Lee lives like a millionaire in a house in Formby near Jurgen Klopp and poses for pictures with a string of influencer girlfriends and reality TV stars like pal Henry Simmons. Neither Lee nor his friend Simmons have any involvement in crime.

He is currently dating the daughter of football star Steven Gerrard, who has been spotted holidaying with Liam Byrne and who was recently videoed on a night out with him.

Lee Byrne regularly spent days at the races with Simmons, the son of an Essex property developer and a star of ITV’s Absolutely Ascot, who has a collection of supercars.

Then teenager Lee was named in High Court documents as living off the proceeds of his father’s drug empire.

During the CAB case it was revealed in an affidavit that he was treated to a three-day knees-up for his debs ball and chauffeured around in a €300,000 Rolls Royce Phantom to celebrate with his school friends.

Months after his uncle David Byrne was murdered in the Regency Hotel, the car was brought into the country by Sines.

Lee’s previous girlfriend’s include social media influencers Larosa Smith, Daisey O’Donnell and now Lily Gerrard. None of Lee’s current or ex-girlfriends has any involvement in crime.

A proceeds of crime case into the wealth of Bomber Kavanagh is also under way in the UK.

During one raid on his Tamworth home during the investigation into his drug-dealing and money-laundering empire, one hundred pairs of designer heels, 120 handbags, 36 pairs of Armani jeans, lines of Hugo Boss suits, closets full of Canada Goose and Moncler jackets and drawers full of expensive watches and jewellery were discovered.

The clothing and jewellery alone is estimated to have been worth £500k stg and is one of the largest ever seizures of personal items ever nabbed from a domestic home in a National Crime Agency investigation.

Cash in the region of another £40,000 was found discarded around the house, stuffed into the back of the sofa and in a variety of Moschino, Gucci and Chanel handbags.

Police in the UK are

sifting through receipted purchases believed to be worth hundreds of thousands and recorded on high-end designer store cards where points were saved for discounts and access to services like personal shoppers.

The stash is a small portion of the investigation.