Inside police wiretap showing level of paranoia and distrust …The Scottish .

18 Apr 2022 — NCA Deputy Director of Investigations Matt Horne said: “Last month, Thomas ‘Bomber‘ Kavanagh, who ran the Kinahan criminal operations in the UK, …

13 Jan 2019 — Thomas “Bomber” Kavanagh, 51, was arrested yesterday morning along with another man after the two flew into Birmingham airport. The agency said …

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KINAHAN CARTEL: Senior gang member Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh facing years in jail after admit

KINAHAN Cartel lieutenant in the UK Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh is facing years behind bars after admitting drugs importation and money laundering offences.

The 52-year-old Irish national was jailed for three years last September for possession of a stun gun disguised as a torch which was found in a raid on his home as part of the drugs investigation.

Today, he was one of three men who pleaded guilty to a series of drug and firearms offences, following a major investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA). At a hearing at Ipswich Crown Court today Kavanagh and Gary Vickery, 37, both car dealers from Tamworth, and Daniel Canning, 41, from Walkinstown, Dublin, all admitted conspiring to import class A and B drugs, and money laundering.

GUILTY: Canning admitted posessing a firearm and ammunition (NCA)

Canning also admitted possessing a firearm and ammunition. All three men will be sentenced following a court session known as a Newton Hearing which will establish Kavanagh’s exact involvement in the conspiracy.

This will take place at the same court later this year.

NEWTON: Kavanagh faces a hearing to look at his role within the conspiracy (NCA)

NCA Deputy Director of Investigations Matt Horne said: “Today’s guilty pleas are the culmination of a four-year investigation into Thomas Kavanagh and his co-conspirators, who were part of a significant international crime network, capable of organising multi-million pound shipments of drugs.

“We have worked throughout with our colleagues at An Garda Síochána, and I hope these convictions send out a strong message to others who may think themselves to be untouchable. “We will be relentless in our pursuit of those involved in organised criminality.”

STASH SEIZED

Seven guns believed to be linked to murdered Kinahan cartel member Eric Fowler uncovered by gardai

• Published: 7:30, 3 Jul 2020 UP DATED BY WATCHROOT SEPTEMBER 2023.

INVESTIGATORS probing major organised crime believe the seven firearms they seized belong to the Kinahan cartel, the Irish Sun can reveal.

The guns were found by officers attached to the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau in the Hollystown area of west Dublin on Wednesday evening.

The shooters were being held in storage and may have been kept there for some time.

Gardai yesterday said they have been sent to the Garda National Technical Bureau for an examination as cops try to establish if they were used in any other hits and if DNA has been left on them.

The Irish Sun understands the guns were linked to associates of slain Eric Fowler and belong to a sub-cell of the overall Kinahan cartel network, headed by Daniel Kinahan, which operates in the city.

Fowler, who had ties to the Kinahan mob, was shot dead in December 2018 in his driveway. His associates helped Imre Arakas — who was brought here by the Kinahan cartel to kill Hutch pal James ‘Mago’ Gately in April 2017 — hide out in a safe house in west Dublin.

The Estonian hitman was later caged for six years after he was convicted for his role in a plot to kill Gately.

A source said: “This highlights how the Kinahan gang is still operating and stashing guns around Dublin ready to be used when needed.

“This is yet another huge find for gardai, who continue to make ­significant dents in the operation of the gang.”

EXECUTION-STYLE MURDERS

Last month, the Special Criminal Court further accepted that the crime gang operated a hierarchical structure with sub-cells engaged to advance its core activities and where directions were issued by superiors within this hierarchy.

It also further established how the Kinahan organisation carries out execution-style murders and trafficks drugs and firearms on an international scale.

Investigators believe that the ­Kinahan organised crime gang has arms dumped right across the capital — with weapons hidden in cars, stashed in hedges or even buried in rural areas.

Gardai have confirmed that no arrests were made during Wednesday’s operation.

Assistant Commissioner John O’Driscoll, from Organised and ­Serious Crime, hailed the latest blow to the cartel.

He said: “The undertaking of this operation leading to the discovery of a significant quantity of firearms reflects the Garda Siochana’s unrelenting efforts in tackling serious and organised crime and our determination to keep people safe from those who would use firearms to endanger life.”

CARTEL MEMBERS CAGED

On Monday, three more members of the brutal Kinahan mob were jailed over their roles in the murder plot of Patsy Hutch in 2018.

Michael Burns, 43, of no fixed abode, was jailed for nine years.

While Ciaran O’Driscoll, 25, of Avondale House, Cumberland Street, in Dublin, and Stephen Curtis, 32, of Bellman’s Walk, Seville Place, Dublin, were both caged for five years. Just hours afterwards, the Assistant Commissioner vowed to smash the Kinahan crime cartel — who have “wreaked havoc” on communities here.

O’Driscoll said: “I believe the progress that’s being made in the ultimate aim of dismantling the Kinahan Organised Crime Group is considerable.

“The cooperation we are receiving at an international level is of great importance and that continues.

“I can assure people that our aim continues to be the total dismantling of the group and that we have proven success can be achieved.

“I can assure you that it will continue into the future.”

He added: “What is clear is that the Kinahan Organised Crime Group have wreaked havoc on communities.

“They are involved in drug selling.

“It is that drug selling that has wrecked the lives of so many people within the community — from where they came themselves.”