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Two Kinahan cartel associates caged for thefts as Gardai warn of ‘volatile’ drug dealer & senior organised crime mobster

A photo in our possession shows Foster with mob boss Daniel Kinahan and Byrne.

• Stephen Breen, Crime Editor

• Published: 7:00, 11 Mar 2024

TWO Kinahan cartel associates have been caged after committing a robbery and a burglary, The Irish Sun can reveal.

In the first case, ‘Fat’ Freddie Thompson’s brother-in-law Patrick Dempsey, 32, from Crumlin, received a 20-month sentence for robbing a delivery driver on September 12, 2018.

On that occasion, he approached the delivery driver in Ferns Road in Crumlin and threatened him before stealing his wallet and phone.

The driver then raised the alarm. Dempsey, who has 107 previous convictions, was later tracked on CCTV down by Sundrive Road station gardai.

The robber, whose sister Vicki was once married to Thompson, is also the son of veteran south Dublin criminal Noel Dempsey.

His brother Karl is also a convicted drug dealer and was previously caged for 20 months for attacking a man in a row over a parking space in 2011.

Dempsey committed the robbery while he was on bail over a €30,000 cocaine seizure.

He later received a separate three-year term, suspended for 16 months, after he was caught with the drugs on November 10, 2015.

At present Dempsey is classified by Gardai in Crumlin as “volatile”.

He is also believed to be linked to gangs involved in drug-related intimidation in the north inner cityOne source said: “The people of Crumlin will be relieved this man is off the streets for a number of months. He has terrorised people for years because of who his dad and brother are..

“Dempsey has convictions for selling drugs in the past but this time he targeted someone to make easy money.

“This case shows even those with loose connections to the Kinahan group are still going to jail.”

In the second case, a close friend of senior Kinahan figure Liam Byrne received an extra ten months in jail after he was convicted of using a forklift to damage a warehouse.

CRIME ‘NOT PLANNED WITH FORETHOUGHT’

Darren Foster, named by the Criminal Assets Bureau under Operation Lamp as a “senior organised crime group member”, pleaded guilty to burglary and causing criminal damage to a unit in the Dublin Industrial Estate on July 9, 2023.

Foster, who is also classified by CAB as being “involved in laundering the proceeds of the criminal conduct of the Byrne Organised Crime Group”, targeted the unit where tools were stored.

But his plan backfired when he was found by Gardai cowering in the back of a van under a blanket.

During his court appearance last week, the court heard how the crime was “not planned with forethought”.

His previous convictions include theft, burglary, drug offences and criminal damage.

He has been in jail since July 2023 for another burglary and was expecting to be released in July 2025. But he will now face an extra 10 months.

The court heard he had developed cocaine and alcohol addictions following the death of his son.

Before the Kinahan and Hutch feud, Foster was pals with David Byrne who died in the 2016 Regency attack.

A photo in our possession shows him with mob boss Daniel Kinahan and Byrne at a boxing match just months before the Regency attack.