Kinahan associate guilty of drug and gun crimes
A MAJOR figure in the Kinahan cartel and two of his closest Dublin associates have pleaded guilty to a series of serious drug and firearms offences at a court in England.
The trio face lengthy sentences when they next appear before Ipswich Crown Court on October 26 next.
They were arrested after a four-year investigation by the British National Crime Agency (NCA) which worked closely with the Garda Drug and Organised Crime Bureau (DOCB) with the police agency paying tribute to gardaí in a statement yesterday.
The NCA announced that Dubliners Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh (52) and Gary Vickery (37) both from Tamworth, and Daniel Canning (41) from Walkinstown all admitted conspiring to import class A and B drugs, and money laundering.
Canning also admitted possessing a firearm and ammunition.
Kavanagh is one of the most senior figures in the Kinahan cartel and his conviction was welcomed by senior gardaí who have been investigating him for decades.
Kavanagh was given a threeyear sentence at Stoke-onTrent Crown Court last year after a modified pink stun gun was found in his “highly fortified” mansion.
Because of standard 50pc remission in the English prison system for so-called minor offences, Kavanagh would have expected to be a free man by next March on this conviction.
However, he is now facing years behind bars after pleading guilty to the organised crime charges.
Kavanagh’s close associates Vickery and Canning had been using top-of-the-range encrypted phones as part of their drug trafficking activities but “got sloppy”, allowing law enforcement agencies to pounce on them.
“These individuals were operating a number of front companies in the UK similar to the companies which have been dismantled in Ireland by the DOCB,” a senior source said.
In 2017 the NCA dealt a major blow to Kavanagh’s network when it seized around €5.5m worth of drugs.