Crime boss Thomas Kavanagh and Solihull men jailed for drugs smuggling

Thomas Kavanagh, who was described as being “at the head of” a criminal organisation smuggling cocaine and cannabis into the UK hidden inside items of machinery, has been jailed for 21 years.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) estimates that his organisation imported drugs with a street value of more than £30 million into the UK.

Thomas “Bomber” Kavanagh, 54, of Tamworth, Staffordshire, Gary Vickery, 39, of Solihull, and 43-year-old Daniel Canning, who also has an address in Solihull, all admitted at an earlier hearing to conspiring to import class A and B drugs, and money laundering - all three have been jailed today (28 March).

Judge Martyn Levett, sentencing at Ipswich Crown Court, said the operation was of a “commercial scale” and that he had “no doubt that the successful importations would have continued” were it not for the authorities intercepting a shipment at Dover in 2017.

Kavanagh, who prosecutors described as “at the head of the organisation”, was jailed for 21 years.

He blew a kiss from the secure dock to family members sat in the public gallery before he was led to the cells.

Kavanagh was arrested at Birmingham Airport on January 12 2019 as he returned from a family holiday to Mexico.

Vickery, who was “immediately beneath” Kavanagh, was jailed for 20 years.

Canning, who was “subordinate to Vickery”, and also admitted possessing a firearm and ammunition, was jailed for 19 years and six months.

He looked at the ceiling as his sentence was read out.

Judge Mr Levett said that a “business was being used as a cover for the importations and premises were leased I suspect for that very purpose”.

He added that there was “a very substantial gain to be made”.

Drugs would come into the UK hidden inside machinery, which would exit the country filled with cash, in what the judge described as a “carousel of drugs in and cash out”.

Irish police seized documents identifying a UK-based freight transport company in January 2017, while making a number of arrests in Dublin in which they seized “a significant quantity of firearms and class A drugs”, prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones had told the court.

The NCA began an investigation and in October 2017 customs officials at Dover seized a consignment of 15kg of cocaine and 200kg of cannabis hidden inside two large Tarmac removal machines, the barrister said.

The judge said that “very significant efforts were taken to avoid detection”, noting that a gun was recovered from a lead-lined compartment inside a transformer at an industrial unit.

The judge said the trio of defendants had “conspired together” with a fourth man, Martin Byrne, who died before the case reached court.

He ordered for the seized drugs, firearms and ammunition to be destroyed, and said that there will be a Proceeds of Crime hearing at a later date.

Kavanagh ‘ran criminal empire from fortified mansion’

Kavanagh ran the criminal empire from a fortified mansion packed with weapons including knives, baseball bats and swords, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

Kavanagh, originally from Dublin, lived with his family in a “luxury gated fortified mansion in Tamworth, Staffordshire, complete with reinforced doors and bullet-proof glass”, said Matt Horne, deputy director of investigations for the NCA.

“It’s from there we say that he ran his criminal empire,” Horne said.

“When my team raided that property in January 2019 following Kavanagh’s arrest at Birmingham Airport they found the property packed with weapons, which included knives, baseball bats, swords and an illegal stun gun for which Kavanagh has previously been given a three-year jail sentence.

“On top of that we found significant amounts of cash totalling around £35,000, but that was in various denominations, and bundles of notes were hidden throughout the house in bags and drawers, even shoved down the back of the sofa.

“The currencies we recovered included Arab Emirates dirhams, US dollars, euros and sterling.”

Canning also pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm and ammunition.

“Their organisation was able to organise, import and distribute drugs worth many millions of pounds into the UK through their connections overseas, their transport infrastructure, which they used again and again to import drugs into the UK on an industrial scale using legitimate hauliers but also front companies to hide their activities,” said Mr Horne.

“Their international criminal operation spanned continental Europe and the UK.

“Countries of Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Germany, Ireland and the West Midlands of the UK all feature in the evidence in this case around their criminal activities.

“These three men were undoubtedly very significant players and in many ways we assess that they considered themselves to be untouchable, seeking to protect themselves through the use of encryption and also using coded communication methods to try to hide the true meaning of their criminal conspiracies.”

Mr Horne said that it’s the NCA’s assessment that Kavanagh is a high-ranking member of the Kinahan organised crime group, also known as the Kinahan Cartel, an Irish criminal network involving drug supply, firearms and money laundering and associated violence, particularly in Ireland.

What was said following sentencing?

Kate Anderson, deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor of the CPS International Justice and Organised Crime Division, said: “This organised crime group imported millions of pounds worth of dangerous drugs into the country, concealing them in machinery in a bid to evade detection.

“They showed no regard for the communities they were putting at risk and pleaded guilty in the face of overwhelming evidence showing their part in this illicit operation.

“Cases like this demonstrate our commitment to disrupting organised criminal activity – and ensuring they face justice.”

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