Kinahan cartel 'on brink of collapse' as Garda leads worldwide police operation

The cartel's Irish operation had been practically dismantled over the past four years since the outbreak of the so-called Kinahan/Hutch feud with the result there have been no related killings over the past two years.

As the net closes around the head of the deadly organisation, internal Garda figures show 26 members of Kinahan's gang are serving long sentences after being convicted of murder, conspiracy to murder and trafficking in guns and drugs. Since March 2015, the bureau has seized €182m worth of narcotics, €14.5m in cash, 122 firearms and foiled more than 70 murder attempts.

Senior sources have confirmed the elite unit, under the command of Assistant Commissioner John O'Driscoll, is in the advanced stages of compiling enough evidence to recommend he face charges for the offence of heading up an organised crime group.

On Monday, Kinahan and his organisation suffered another major blow as the leader of his UK drug trafficking operation faces the prospect of being sentenced to life imprisonment.

Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh (52) and two other Dublin men - Gary Vickery (37) and Daniel Canning (41) - pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges relating to a multi-million euro drug trafficking and money laundering operation at Ipswich Crown Court.

Originally from Crumlin, in Dublin, Kavanagh, who is already serving a three-year sentence in the UK for possession of a stun gun, co-ordinated the cartel's huge British operation from his bullet-proof mansion in Tamworth outside Birmingham.

He is a brother-in-law of criminal Liam Byrne who controls the cartel's Irish operation, also from a base in the English Midlands.

Byrne's brother David, who was also a gang member, was shot dead in the attack on the Regency Hotel in February 2016 sparking an unprecedented cycle of bloodshed that claimed another 15 lives - including two completely innocent men.

'Bomber' Kavanagh has been a key member of the cartel for over 20 years after Christy Kinahan, the 'Dapper Don', began building his crime empire with convicted kidnapper John 'the Colonel' Cunningham in the late '90s.

The guilty pleas this week are the culmination of a four-year joint investigation by the GDOCB and the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA).

A security source said last night: "The GDOCB put a huge amount of work into the investigation in conjunction with our colleagues in the NCA. The fact that Kavanagh and his two associates pleaded guilty just shows the strength of the evidence against them - they would have fought the charges if there was even the slightest chance of them getting off.

"After Kavanagh pleaded guilty Daniel doesn't know which way to turn because he doesn't know what the Irish, the English or the Spanish now have on him.

"The cumulative effect of the ongoing operations against the Kinahans by the gardaí over the past four years has left them on the back foot and on the run now because they are being hammered from all sides.

"Daniel's attempt to reinvent himself has completely backfired. There is no doubt at this stage that he will at some stage find himself facing serious charges in the Irish courts relating to the running of an organised crime group which is still a work in progress."

Gardaí say Kinahan is also "very nervous" following the recent revelation that the French and Dutch authorities successfully hacked into Encrochat, a secure encrypted phone messaging service being used by organised crime groups to co-ordinate murders and the trafficking of arms and drug shipments across Europe.

The sophisticated hacking operation, which is understood to have started in April, enabled police to intercept millions of text messages in real time.

The information was compiled and funnelled through Europol to law enforcement agencies in relevant countries as the messages were being read. The three-month operation has reportedly led to over 800 arrests in Holland and the UK alone, resulting in the seizure of eight tons of cocaine, the closure of 20 drug laboratories and the prevention of 200 murders.

However, gardaí would not say if the Encrochat interceptions led to any arrests or seizures in Ireland. In recent months the GDOCB has seized more than €1m worth of drugs and over €2m in cash. It also foiled a planned assassination unrelated to the feud.

The top-secret operation came to an end three weeks ago when the encrypted communications provider discovered the breach of its previously impenetrable security. Encrochat informed its clients of the infiltration, which is understood to include members of the Kinahan cartel, advising them to dump their devices immediately.

Senior security sources say the hacking operation also gleaned a "huge amount of intelligence" which may include valuable evidence linking Daniel Kinahan to serious crime from his bolthole in Dubai.

Meanwhile there is growing speculation his sojourn in the desert is looking increasingly uncertain after the Irish Government intervened to inform the UAE authorities of his criminal connections.

The diplomatic intervention and media spotlight have scuppered his efforts to reinvent himself as an international boxing power broker.

Last month he was sacked by KHK, a sports company owned by a Bahraini prince, four weeks after it hired him as its top adviser. In a stinging rebuke to the mob boss the company cited its "integrity and deep-rooted principles" in coming to the decision.

A week later, boxer Tyson Fury also sacked the gang boss as his adviser.

Kinahan has been identified in the High Court as a senior figure in organised crime while the Special Criminal Court also found the cartel was involved in carrying out "execution type murders to protect its core activities" as well as drugs trafficking and gun offences.