Gardaí are liaising with their British counterparts about the movements of Liam Byrne, the Irish gang leader released early from prison in the UK.
Dubliner Byrne (44) was jailed for five years last October but was freed from Belmarsh Prison in London around the turn of the new year.
He was jailed for his role in a conspiracy to amass weapons, and supply information relating to their whereabouts, in a bid to try and reduce the 21-year drug-trafficking prison sentence of his brother-in-law, Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh.
However, British police learned the haul of firearms had effectively been assembled and planted by Byrne, Kavanagh and others in a staged manner to make it appear Kavanagh had turned police informer.
The details of Byrne’s release, first reported by the Irish Mirror, include his being electronically tagged and his movements being restricted in the months ahead. Gardaí are intent on monitoring Byrne in a bid to establish who he has contact with and any plans he may be making for the future, including possibly resuming his criminal career or returning to Ireland.
Though he was the leader of the Crumlin-based Byrne organised crime group, which distributed the Kinahan cartel’s drugs in Ireland, he is currently facing no charges in the Republic. As a result, he will be free to return once his conditional release in the UK expires.
However, his home on Raleigh Square, Crumlin, was seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) in 2018 and a car dealership he was involved in, which was a front for money laundering, was also closed by the bureau. He fled to the UK, and then Dubai, while the Cab case against him was ongoing.
He was arrested in Mallorca in June, 2023 while on a family holiday and was then extradited to Britain to face the gun conspiracy charges. He pled guilty and was sentenced last October.
His brother, David Byrne, was shot dead by the Hutch gang in the Kinahan-Hutch feud attack at the Regency Hotel in 2016. His father, James ‘Jaws’ Byrne, died last year after a long illness while his son was in prison in the UK awaiting sentencing.
Though the Byrne organised crime group in Dublin has largely been dismantled by the Garda’s investigations into those involved in the Kinahan-Hutch feud, gardaí strongly suspect Byrne will make efforts to re-establish himself in organised crime. He was the key figure for the Kinahan cartel in Ireland while his brother-in-law, Kavanagh, ran the cartel’s UK operation.
Garda sources said they were surprised Byrne was released from his prison sentence so soon. Though some form of early release was anticipated, they said they had hoped he would not be freed until the second half of this year.
Under the UK sentencing regime, all prisoners are entitled to remission of 50 per cent, meaning Byrne was only ever due to serve 2½ years. He was never granted bail between his arrest in Mallorca and his conviction. That resulted in Byrne having already served almost 17 months by the time he was sentenced last October, leaving almost 14 months remaining on his sentence. However, just three months into that time remaining, he was freed.
Though remission is 50 per cent in Britain, prisoners can have their sentences further reduced if freed under an electronic tag, in a process known as ‘home detention curfew scheme’. In recent years, prisoners have also secured even earlier release because UK jails are overcrowded, with Byrne having benefited from all of the concessions, cutting his effective 2½-year sentence by about 10 months.
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