A senior determine within the Kinahan organised crime group has been jailed for six years for orchestrating an arms cache plot whereas in jail to dupe authorities into awarding him a lighter sentence.
Thomas Kavanagh, 57, had needed to guide the Nationwide Crime Company (NCA) to a buried stash of 11 “fearsome” weapons in an try to affect sentencing in a multimillion-pound drug smuggling case.
Kavanagh, a UK boss within the gang, offered data to the NCA which resulted in them discovering two holdalls in a area in Newry, Northern Eire.
The luggage contained what the choose known as “fearsome” weapons – seven machine weapons, three automated handguns, an assault rifle and ammunition.
Kavanagh, from Dublin, had begun placing the conspiracy in movement in 2019 whereas in jail on remand over critical drug costs.
These costs associated to smuggling “multiple kilos” of cocaine and hashish into the UK for which he was sentenced to 21 years in jail in March 2022.
The NCA stated Kavanagh had hoped – in hiding after which revealing the situation of the weapons – to “fool” the company into doing a deal so he may negotiate a lighter sentence.
Whereas behind bars, Kavanagh enlisted the assistance of his brother-in-law, 44-year-old Liam Byrne, and affiliate Shaun Kent, 38, within the plan.
Picture:
Liam Byrne (L) and Shaun Kent. Pic: NCA
Between January 2020 and June 2021, the defendants agreed to “acquire as many arms as possible” from the UK, Netherlands, the Republic of Eire and Northern Eire.
By Thomas Kavanagh’s authorized representatives, the NCA was supplied with a map, main investigators to a location close to Newry.
However the plot was foiled after the NCA uncovered incriminating messages on encrypted EncroChat, which had been cracked by French counterparts.
Within the messages, utilizing nicknames and slang phrases for what was being acquired, they mentioned how they may pay money for the weapons and the way they may get them buried within the location set out by Kavanagh.
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Liam Byrne being arrested within the Alcudia space of Majorca, Spain, in 2023. Pic: PA
The trio admitted the conspiracy final month forward of their deliberate trial on the Outdated Bailey.
Kavanagh, from Tamworth, Byrne, from Dublin, and Kent, from Liverpool, all admitted two costs of conspiring to own a prohibited weapon and two costs of conspiring to own prohibited ammunition between 9 January 2020 and three June 2021.
Kent and Kavanagh additionally admitted conspiring with others to pervert the court docket of justice.
Kent was handed a six-year jail sentence whereas Byrne – who fled to Majorca after the conspiracy however was arrested in June 2023 – was jailed for 5 years.
All three defendants appeared through video hyperlink from HMP Belmarsh for the two-day sentencing on the Outdated Bailey.
Kavanagh will serve his sentence consecutively to his jail time for earlier offending.
However Kent has already served extra days on remand than the sentence imposed on Tuesday, and subsequently is predicted to be launched from jail.
Prosecutor Tom Forster KC stated on the primary day of sentencing: “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.
“On this means, the conspirators meant to idiot the authorities into concluding the help was real, when it was not, in order that Thomas Kavanagh could be rewarded for serving to the authorities to recuperate harmful weapons by means of a substantial low cost 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’.”
