The five-year jail term imposed on Liam Byrne by the Old Bailey in London on Tuesday means he will be out of prison in just over a year, perhaps less, when remission and his 17 months already in custody are factored in.
His claims in mitigation that he was a minor player in the firearms conspiracy that has led to his imprisonment, and that he wanted to lead an honest life when his sentence was served, were met with derision by Garda members who have investigated him.
“Absolutely zero chance,” said one source when asked if he believed Byrne, the premier figure in Irish domestic drug dealing for a decade, would go clean when he is released in about 12 months from now.
Other sources in Dublin said Byrne would be “absolutely delighted” with the sentence, given he had so little time remaining to serve.
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“For a lot of these guys who are jailed, they might come out in their mid 50s, maybe after five or 10 years, and they don’t have the same swagger,” said one Garda source. “Their age holds them back. But their biggest problem is the crime world moves on, new players. But Byrne won’t really have that problem, he’ll be out in no time.”
Another source said though Byrne had “plenty of time and contacts to start again” in the drugs trade, his position was not the same as before. The Byrne crime group he once led from Crumlin and which ran the Kinahans’ Irish operation was now dismantled because so many of its members, and others in its pay, had been jailed for Kinahan-Hutch feud crimes.
Furthermore, Byrne’s brother – David Byrne – had been shot dead in the Regency Hotel attack in 2016. And his father James “Jaws” Byrne, who he was very close to, died in recent weeks. Byrne’s home in Raleigh Square, Crumlin, had also been seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau.
“All of that will rattle him, it has to,” said the source. Other detectives believed Byrne may return to Dublin on release but could also move to Spain or return to either Dubai or the UK. But none believed he would shun his life of crime and work as a spray painter, as he claimed in court.
Gardaí said the jail term imposed might have been longer had Byrne’s background – as leader of the Kinahan cartel’s Irish operation for more than a decade – been set out during his sentencing hearing. However, there was no reference to the major case taken against him by the Criminal Assets Bureau, during which the High Court was told he was a drug dealer and one of four main players in the Kinahan-Hutch feud.
Even Byrne’s previous convictions do not appear to have been explained fully in court. It was claimed his last conviction, for an armed robbery while he was a teenager, was recorded almost 25 years ago. There was no mention of another incident, during which he beat a man unconscious with a bat, before threatening to shoot him, and for which he was jailed.
His co-accused and brother-in-law, Thomas Kavanagh (57), would find it much harder to retake his place in organised crime on his release, gardaí believe. Kavanagh, who led the Kinahans’ UK operation, was sentenced to six years on Tuesday for his role in the firearms conspiracy. He is now serving three prison terms, including 21 years for drug dealing, and will not be freed until he is 67.
“He was more senior to Byrne in the Kinahan cartel and he’s a much tougher man but, by the time he’s out, he’ll have been inside for 15 years,” pointed out one source. “At 67, he’ll have some job getting back up to speed after missing 15 years.”
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