LIAM BYRNE REGULARLY crops up in other people’s social media accounts – in recent years images were circulated of him posing for pics at English and European soccer matches and in sunkissed locations across Europe.
In some snaps he is at football matches and in the company of well-known English football players. In others he is shirtless or giving thumbs up poses – just one of the lads on yet another holiday.
There have been posts where he has been thanked profusely for sorting out tickets for British football games – and ones of his smiling, perma-tanned face at other matches posing with an adoring fan (a fan not of one of the football teams, but of Byrne himself).
For the moment, at least, Byrne won’t be in a position to post any similar social media updates.
Garda profilers in the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) had him identified as a key figure in the drugs trade for a number of years and yesterday Spanish and British police announced that he had been arrested as part of their operations – this time for the possession and supply of firearms found in a search in Co Down in 2021.
Byrne Organised Crime Group
An affidavit submitted to the High Court by the CAB in 2018 provided an insight into the inner workings of Liam Byrne’s empire.
The CAB identified Byrne as the leader of a gang known as the Byrne Organised Crime Group (BOCG), based for the most part in the Dublin suburb of Crumlin.
Byrne and his brother David, who was murdered by the Hutch Organised Crime Group at the Regency Hotel in 2016, were the main leaders of the BOCG.
While the Byrne brothers were seriously involved in crime, many of their family members have nothing to do with the criminal underworld and live normal crime-free lives.
The High Court has heard that the BOCG runs the Dublin operations for the Kinahan Organised Crime Group (KOCG).
Raleigh Square
Byrne ran his operations out of Raleigh Square in Crumlin where, sources said, a house with bullet proof glass, six ensuite jacuzzis, a cinema, and a playground was situated.
This house formed the main pillar of the case against Byrne in which Ms Justice Carmel Stewart ruled the Criminal Assets Bureau could take €1.4million worth of assets linked to the gang in 2018.
While he was not listed in the paper work – it was in the name of a relative – it was conclusively linked to him by CAB investigators.
CAB’s case in the High Court was that Liam Byrne was a “trusted lieutenant” of Daniel Kinahan, son of billionaire crime boss Christy Kinahan and that the gang was directly active in the Kinahan-Hutch feud that has so far claimed upwards of 20 lives.
The High Court accepted a CAB application that Byrne and several named associates were part of the Kinahan cartel.
The garda mission targeting Byrne and his associates was known as Operation Lamp.
Chasing the money
CAB works in a complex web of forensic accountancy – chasing the money not just in Ireland but across the globe. They then have law officers that draw up a detailed affidavit which goes to the High Court where an application is made to seize the assets as the proceeds of crime.
The case resulted in various Byrne associates losing 29 luxury cars, three electric bikes and a dune buggy, four Rolex and Breitling watches, two platinum and gold diamond rings, four wads of cash totalling more than €26,000 and two houses in Dublin worth around €500,000 each.
The CAB investigation found documents associated with a €155,000 house on Kildare Road, Crumlin, linked to key Kinahan associate Sean McGovern. The High Court heard McGovern was associated directly to Liam Byrne.
While following the money documents were discovered that led gardaí to a critical piece of evidence – a fund called Mule State Foundation Trust.
That caused garda detectives to call their British colleagues in the National Crime Agency working on Operation Sassak.
The next step was to link Byrne to James Mulvey, a convicted British drug trafficker – he was a close associate of murdered mobster Gerard ‘Hatchet’ Kavanagh.
Mulvey was from Solihull, Birmingham, the 42-year-old was the link back to the KOCG as he was caught by the NCA sending consignments of cocaine and cannabis from Holland to Ireland via Belgium and the West Midlands.
Two men wanted by the NCA on suspicion of firearms offences have been arrested in Spain.
— National Crime Agency (NCA) (@NCA_UK) June 5, 2023
Liam Byrne, from Dublin, who is thought to be one of the most trusted members of the Kinahan organised crime group, was arrested on Sunday in Mallorca.
Full story ➡️ https://t.co/UYYK9F9DMq pic.twitter.com/1lvj57a3WH
The drugs, concealed in metal rollers and delivered to Inkberrow in Worcestershire before being driven on to Dublin by Mulvey’s firm, JBS Transport.
As the investigation progressed, the High Court heard, the CAB discovered one of the methods used by Byrne and his Kinahan associates to launder their money – the use of high end car dealerships, such as LS Active Car Sales.
The plan was simple. They were running money through the car dealership and pretending it was legitimate car sales but cars were not changing hands – they were being used by individual gang members.
In her judgment in the High Court Ms Justice Stewart described the cars used by Byrne as “currency between different criminal elements”.
“They are transferred between one criminal organisation to another but the ownership of the vehicle is normally recorded outside of these groupings.
“This motor business was used as a slush fund for the Bryne organised crime group and enabled its members to access and exclusively use high-end vehicles in payment for, inter alia, flights and five star accommodation,” she said.
Byrne had fled to Birmingham but a specialist unit of the NCA, working in secret and some of whom were undercover, were busily targeting him.
The ‘Bomber’ link
The midlands of the UK had become a difficult place for gang members with the recent conviction and imprisonment of Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh who was a key figure in the KOCG.
Byrne fled to the criminal safe haven of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates where the Kinahans are thought to be hiding from international law enforcement.
Sources said sizeable law enforcement resources are now being targeted at the KOCG now – with surveillance, both human and technological, being employed to track the global movements of members.
The NCA said in a statement that the arrests follow an intelligence-led investigation, supported by the Spanish National Police and gardaí.
The British investigators obtained Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TACA) warrants after EncroChat messages showed Byrne and an associate were believed to be allegedly involved in the supply and acquisition of firearms.
EncroChat was a secure messaging service used by the gang which was breached by French police hackers revealing the inner workings of the KOCG and other gangs.
Some police forces have used that information to make arrests – it is understood gardaí, acting on legal advice, have used the information from that breach for intelligence purposes only.
Since the US imposed sanctions on the crime group that has been a huge ramp up for Irish, British and European police forces such as Spain and the Netherlands.
For Byrne, that probe came to a head in a restaurant in Malaga on Sunday night where he was enjoying a meal with family in a rare catch up.
Sources have said that the Byrne clan are very tightly bonded – and with a relative unwell at the moment, the traditional and close knit Dublin family are closer than ever.
Liam Byrne wasn’t the only KOCG associate lifted in Spain – so were Bomber Kavanagh’s son and Byrne’s nephew Jack Kavanagh. Both are now in custody in Spain awaiting the next step in the extradition process to the UK.
Security sources here have been keen to stress the importance of it being an international operation to take down the KOCG. They have said that the Irish Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau would not be able to dismantle the gang alone given its international structure.
Those same sources also stress the likelihood that, despite being Irish, the most likely outcome for the senior players, such as Daniel Kinahan, is that they will, if arrested, face justice in a courtroom far from their native Dublin.
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