The leader of the British Kinahan crime group must pay back more than £1 million (€1.15 million) or face a longer prison term, prosecutors have said.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Friday that Irishman Thomas Kavanagh, 57, of Mile Oak, Tamworth, Staffordshire, must pay the amount within three months or face an additional 12 years added to his sentence.
Prosecutors allege the Kinahan gang, led by Kavanagh, smuggled around £30m worth of drugs out of Europe by hiding them in equipment.
In March 2022, Kavanagh was sentenced to 21 years in prison for drug and money laundering offences.
The judge, who heard the case at Ipswich Crown Court on Friday, estimated that Kavanagh and his partner Gary Vickery, 42, of Boundary Road, Solihull, West Midlands, made £12,235,047 and £10,966,619 respectively from their criminal activities, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
The judge ordered Kavanagh to pay £1,123,096 based on his current assets, which include “his 50 per cent share in the family's fortified mansion in Tamworth, proceeds from the sale of various UK properties and a villa in Spain, as well as around £150,000 in expensive bags, clothes and accessories found in a search of Kavanagh's home following his arrest in 2019,” the NCA spokesman added.
Prosecutors said Vickery must also pay £109,312 within three months or face a further two years in prison.
The NCA added that previous court hearings had ordered the confiscation of an Audemars Piguet watch worth £75,000, as well as just over €100,000 seized from a hotel room when Vickery was arrested.
Kay Mellor, head of the NCA's task force, said: “Thomas Kavanagh led the UK arm of the Kinahan organised crime group, responsible for the import and distribution of drugs and firearms, earning millions of pounds from the activity.
“He and his gang thought they were untouchable, but that was their downfall.
“Kavanagh and Vickery will spend many years in prison and will now have to pay back more than £1m to the state.”
Chief prosecutor Adrian Foster said: “Thomas Kavanagh and Gary Vickery are dangerous criminals from the world of organised gangs who import millions of pounds' worth of dangerous drugs into the UK on an industrial scale.”
“This successful £1 million confiscation order underlines the prosecution team’s commitment to working internationally to deprive organised criminals of their illicit proceeds.
“We continue to work vigorously to recover the proceeds of crime and will seek additional prison terms if they fail to meet their obligations.”
In October 2024, Kavanagh was jailed for a further six years after he and his accomplices tried to lead NCA officers to a buried cache of 11 guns to secure a lighter sentence for his multi-million pound drugs ring.
Masterminding the plot from prison, Kavanagh recruited his brother-in-law Liam Byrne, 44, and associate Sean Kent, 38, to defraud the NCA.
Byrne, who fled to Majorca after the plot, was jailed for five years, while Kent was given six years for his part in the conspiracy.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
