BOMBS AWAY..

GARDA’S KEY ROLE IN BRINGING TOP GANGSTER TO JUSTICE

- JOHN HAND

• Kinahan’s No2 gets 21 years for €36m drug deals
• Kavanagh’s underlings also given long terms

THE Kinahan cartel’s “main man” in the UK was caged for 21 years yesterday as cops dealt a crushing blow to the international crime gang.

Thomas “Bomber” Kavanagh and his underlings oversaw 23 shipments of cocaine and cannabis into England worth €36million in a one-year period.

The 54-year-old career criminal now faces having his multi-million euro assets, including his fortified mansion, seized by investigators.

Known as “The Gaffer”, Kavanagh was Daniel Kinahan’s No2 and gardai have established he had a main role in directing activities.

He was the “figurehead” of a crime gang which based itself in England but whose operations also stretched to Spain, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Germany and Ireland.

The gang’s “highly sophisticated” operation saw them importing vast amounts of cocaine and cannabis, unloading it and then reloading cash to be sent back as payment.

NCA Deputy Director of Investigations Matt Horne said: “Kavanagh was a high-ranking member of the Kinahan cartel, an organised crime group synonymous with acts of violence. He was their main man in the UK.

“ Through their criminal connections overseas, his organisation was able to organise, import and distribute drugs worth many millions of pounds.

“These men considered themselves to be untouchable. But we were able to systematically dismantle the group and prove that this was not the case.”

Below him was Gary Vickery, with whom he held multiple meetings in person, and the pair also went on a celebratory trip to New York.