'Deliveroo' EncroChat dealer accused of supplying guns to Kinahan Cartel ruse has charges dropped

A "Deliveroo for drugs" EncroChat dealer accused of supplying firearms to Kinahan Cartel members has had the charges against him dropped. Daniel McLoughlin, 37, was accused of providing firearms to Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh and Liam Byrne, 44, who are both senior members of the Irish crime syndicate.

Kavanagh, Byrne and Liverpool man Shaun Kent, 38, appeared before the Old Bailey last week where they admitted gun offences relating to an elaborate ruse to try and con the National Crime Agency. McLoughlin, who was originally charged along with the three other men, appeared before the Old Bailey yesterday.

Although originally charged with two counts of conspiracy to possess a prohibited weapon, the ECHO understands no evidence was offered against McLoughlin. Confirming the details to the ECHO, a Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spokesperson said: "We have a duty to keep all cases under continuous review – in the case of Daniel McLoughlin the evidence available no longer provided a realistic prospect of conviction.

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"His co-defendants Thomas Kavanagh, Shaun Kent, and Liam Byrne have already pleaded guilty to various firearms charges – they remain in custody and will be sentenced at a later date." The CPS told the ECHO Kavanagh will return to the Old Bailey next week for a hearing, before he and his two co-defendants return to the same court to be sentenced on October 21.

McLoughlin, most recently of Alderley Road, Hoylake, was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court to 14 years and four months earlier this year admitting conspiracy to supply class A and B drugs and exporting class B drugs to Australia. McLoughlin appeared before the court with conspirator Elliot Garrity, with the court told the pair set up a drug supply line in 2020.

The court heard drug users placed their orders which were then delivered by Garrity in his black cab. The court heard that pair saw a chance to "expand the business" with other items during the covid lockdown and soon offered items "like prosecco and crisps" alongside the drugs. "They were effectively a Deliveroo for drugs," a prosecutor said.

McLoughlin, who used the EncroChat handles 'Tabooky' and 'Wearyspear', sent messages in which he "bragged" about earning roughly £15,000 in a single week with the "best drugs line ever". He lay out plans to be able to grow the enterprise, which police estimate shifted over three kilos of cocaine and ketamine in equal amounts, to operate 24 hours a day with multiple drivers working underneath him.

However, following the hacking of the encrypted messaging platform McLoughlin was arrested at his home address. When he was jailed Judge Stuart Driver told him: "This was your business. You controlled it on a commercial scale expecting financial reward and using another business as a cover. You used sophisticated Encro phones to avoid detection. The worst feature is the criminal record. you have two previous sentences for Class A drug supply offences. this is your third strike."

Kavanagh and Byrne are said to be high-ranking members of the notorious Kinahan Cartel - a crime syndicate forged in Dublin but now with links all over the world. The two men, along with Kent, schemed to create a fake arms cache and plant them in Northern Ireland.

However, the men plotted for Kavanagh, who is currently facing a lengthy prison term for trafficking and cannabis, to lead the NCA to the weapons in the hope law enforcement would commend him and reduce his prison term. But the plot was rumbled and Kent was arrested in Liverpool while Byrne, who is Kavanagh's brother-in-law, was extradited from Spain.

Kavanagh is said by the NCA to be a high ranking member of the Irish network involved in drugs supply, firearms and money laundering, and acted as the figurehead of the organisation in the UK. He lived with his family in a fortified mansion, complete with reinforced doors and bulletproof glass, in Tamworth in Staffordshire from where he ran his criminal empire, the NCA has said.

In 2020 he had been in custody facing a lengthy jail term for trafficking cocaine and cannabis into the UK. He hatched a plot to fool the NCA and secure a reduced sentence by pretending to help them uncover an illicit stash of weapons.

He enlisted the help of his co-defendants and they amassed a haul of 11 firearms, including three Skorpion submachine guns, three Heckler and Koch, an Uzi submachine gun and ammunition from the UK, the Netherlands and Republic of Ireland. Kavanagh had hoped the ruse would lead the NCA to commend him for helping them and look favourable to the court. Kavanagh had first approached the NCA in December 2020.

He went on to claim in an interview in April 2021 that he had intelligence about an arms cache of between 10 and 20 weapons, said to have come from Holland. Through his solicitor, he provided a map with instructions and X marking the spot in Newry, Northern Ireland. The Police Service of Northern Ireland, assisting the NCA operation, went to a farmer’s field where they found buried, just beneath the surface, two holdalls containing the guns and ammunition.

At the time, the NCA said the guns were in good condition and ready for use. Having reviewed the EncroChat data in greater detail, the NCA concluded Kavanagh’s tip-off was a put-up job and withdrew its co-operation. Appearing before the court last week, Kent, Byrne and Kavanagh admitted two charges of conspiring to possess a prohibited weapon, and two charges of conspiring to possess prohibited ammunition, between January 9 2020 and June 3 2021. Kavanagh and Kent also admitted conspiring with others to pervert the course of justice.