Gardai were forced to put terrified witnesses into protection over fears they would be targeted by “violent” Thomas “Bomber” Kavanagh, the Irish Mirror revealed.
Veteran detectives who dealt with the thug revealed how he was an extremely dangerous criminal in Dublin from the late 80s into the early 2000s.
The pressure from gardai in the capital later saw the now 54-year-old mobster flee to the UK where he set up operations for the Kinahan cartel.
READ MORE: Thomas 'Bomber’ Kavanagh could be forced to pay up millions in new criminal assets case
Sentenced last week to 21 years behind bars, Kavanagh helped direct a €36million drug smuggling and money laundering operation in Britain.
Kavanagh’s brutality was on show when in October 2000, his associate Liam Byrne failed to get High Court bail.
His father James “Jaws” Byrne erupted at the decision, roaring at lawyers, who took cover while the judge fled the chamber.
Outside the room in the Four Courts, Kavanagh was involved in a brutal assault on the State witness in the case against Byrne.
She suffered a broken finger while her pal had clumps of hair pulled out and was kicked in the head.
Enraged, Kavanagh was arrested but that evening in custody, he went even further when he threatened to shoot a garda. Another former investigator said: “That was the mark of the man. He actually had the audacity to threaten to kill a garda.”
Kavanagh was key in the rise of Byrne and his organised crime gang.
The former senior officer said: “He was working for the Byrnes in the background but everyone knew he was.
“Kavanagh was very nasty, he was the instigator of a lot and that saw witnesses go into witness protection because he could do anything. He was that volatile and nasty. No one crossed him.
“But he could be very cute too. He would often manage to keep one step away from it.”
One former senior detective told the Irish Mirror: “Kavanagh was feared because of his tendency for violence. He was highly
volatile.”
Born in central Dublin in September 1967, Kavanagh is a career criminal who was first convicted on two burglary charges at the age of 18.
At 21, he had been in court over two separate assaults on gardai in 1987 and 1988. Two years later, Kavanagh was jailed for seven years for possession of a firearm.
But his links with Liam Byrne, who went on to lead Kinahan mob in Ireland, saw both men rise in the underworld.
Kavanagh married Bryne’s sister Joanne, who is not involved in crime. Their father “Jaws” Byrne, was once an associate of slain mob boss Martin “The General” Cahill. Byrne’s brother David, another feared enforcer for the Kinahan mob, was shot dead by Hutch gang gunmen at the Regency Hotel in February 2016.
Kavanagh had been targeted by the Criminal Assets Bureau in 1996 who secured an order of IR£134,000 in unpaid taxes on proceeds of crime.
His home on Knocknarea Avenue was also nabbed.
With that and the ongoing pressure from gardai – who were a “huge thorn” in his side at the time – he fled to the UK.
There, Kavanagh settled in Tamworth in the Midlands where he went on to play a key role in the Kinahan cartel’s operations.
Although Liam Byrne ran the Irish branch, Kavanagh had a central part in directing the gang there while he oversaw its UK business.
The drug baron also sanctioned murders while he provided logistical support in the cartel’s attacks as the gang unleashed havoc on Hutch gang.
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