The son of a senior member of the Kinahan organised crime group has admitted helping his father in a plot to build an arms cache to dupe UK authorities.
Jack Kavanagh (24), whose father is Thomas “Bomber” Kavanagh, was extradited to the UK last month.
He had been arrested in May 2023 at Malaga Airport by officers from the Spanish National Police as he was transiting from Dubai to Turkey.
On Friday, Kavanagh, from Tamworth, appeared at the Old Bailey in London and pleaded guilty by video-link from Belmarsh Prison to two charges of conspiracy to possess a firearm and two offences of plotting to possess ammunition.
An Irish cardiologist’s tips on how to ‘make purposeful changes in your life and see them through’
Ten expert predictions about the world in 2025. All of them are wrong
Cameras to catch drivers breaking red lights to be introduced in Dublin
Nanci Griffith: From a Distance review – harrowing account of the country music star’s life that ended in isolation and alcoholism
Judge Philip Katz remanded Kavanagh in custody to be sentenced on December 4th.
Last month, Thomas Kavanagh (57), who is originally from Dublin, was jailed for six years for orchestrating the plot.
He had hoped that by leading the National Crime Agency (NCA) in the UK to a buried stash of 11 “fearsome” weapons, he could influence his sentencing in a multimillion-euro drug smuggling case.
Running the conspiracy from prison, Thomas Kavanagh enlisted the help of his son, as well as his brother-in-law, Liam Byrne (44), and associate Shaun Kent (38) in the plan to deceive the NCA.
In May 2021, Thomas Kavanagh provided information to the NCA which led them to a field in Newry, Northern Ireland, where two holdalls were unearthed.
They contained seven machine guns, three automatic hand guns, an assault rifle and ammunition.
The plot was foiled after the NCA uncovered incriminating messages on encrypted EncroChat which had been cracked by French counterparts.
Between January 2020 and June 2021, the defendants agreed to “acquire as many arms as possible” from the UK, Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Thomas Kavanagh had run the conspiracy from HMP Dovegate where he was serving a three-year sentence for possession of a stun gun and had been remanded on serious drug charges since March 2020.
Those charges related to smuggling “multiple kilos” of cocaine and cannabis into the UK for which he was sentenced in March 2022 to 21 years in prison.
In September, Thomas Kavanagh and Byrne, from Dublin, and Kent, from Liverpool, admitted to two charges of conspiring to possess a prohibited weapon, and two charges of conspiring to possess prohibited ammunition, between January 9th, 2020, and June 3rd, 2021.
Thomas Kavanagh and Kent also admitted conspiring with others to pervert the course of justice.
Byrne – who fled to Majorca after the events – was jailed for five years while Kent was handed a six-year prison sentence.
Thomas Kavanagh will serve his sentence consecutive to his jail time for previous offending. – PA