Martin ‘The General' Cahill gang thug Joseph Kavanagh, who carried out bank director abduction, dies suddenly at home
Brute Joseph 'Jo Jo' Kavanagh, a relative of fallen
4
Joseph 'Jo Jo' Kavanagh was a one-time associate of criminal Martin Cahill
Credit: Getty Images - Getty
4
Brute Joseph 'Jo Jo' Kavanagh died at his home this week
Credit: RIP.ie
4
He is a relative of Kinahan thug Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh
Credit: PA:Press Association
The thug, understood to have been aged in his late 60s, previously served seven years of a 12-year sentence for abducting former National Irish Bank director Jim Lacey and members of his family at their
Kavanagh was convicted of robbery, possession of a handgun with intent to commit an offence and demanding cash with menaces with intention to steal.
The brazen
Although £300,000 was taken, it was much less than the millions the Cahill gang had planned to steal.
Read more in News
As part of this ploy, sources explained how Kavanagh allowed Cahill shoot him in the leg two months after the kidnapping.
Kavanagh, who had only suffered a flesh wound, told
But the concocted story and move was rejected by the Special Criminal
It was the Cahill gang's last big job before its leader was shot dead in 1994.
Most read in Irish News
Sources who dealt with Kavanagh say he was a "depraved" and "vile" character, who assaulted gardai while in custody multiple times.
He was part of Cahill's inner circle, alongside Martin 'The Viper' Foley, John 'The Coach' Traynor, and Martin Cunningham, from the 70s into the 90s.
'DANGEROUS CHARACTER'
One source told the Irish Sun: "Martin Cahill kept the likes of Kavanagh very close.
"Cahill had carried out a favour for Kavanagh previously. Cahill then held it over Kavanagh and used him.
"Kavanagh himself was a bad egg, a sleeveen and a highly dangerous character."
NEPHEWS KILLED
Kavanagh's nephews Gerard - nicknamed 'Hatchet' - and Paul worked for the Kinahan cartel.
But both were later whacked by the deadly mob in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
Kavanagh is also related to 'Bomber', who was the second in command for the cartel before being locked up in the UK for two decades for drug trafficking.
Kavanagh's funeral notice says his funeral is "private for family and close friends."
4
Dublin gangster Martin Foley was also a part of the gang
Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
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The Irish Sun
16 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Martin ‘The General' Cahill gang thug Joseph Kavanagh, who carried out bank director abduction, dies suddenly at home
A ONE-TIME key associate of slain gangster Martin 'The General' Cahill has died, the Irish Sun has learned. Brute Joseph 'Jo Jo' Kavanagh, a relative of fallen 4 Joseph 'Jo Jo' Kavanagh was a one-time associate of criminal Martin Cahill Credit: Getty Images - Getty 4 Brute Joseph 'Jo Jo' Kavanagh died at his home this week Credit: 4 He is a relative of Kinahan thug Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh Credit: PA:Press Association The thug, understood to have been aged in his late 60s, previously served seven years of a 12-year sentence for abducting former National Irish Bank director Jim Lacey and members of his family at their Kavanagh was convicted of robbery, possession of a handgun with intent to commit an offence and demanding cash with menaces with intention to steal. The brazen Although £300,000 was taken, it was much less than the millions the Cahill gang had planned to steal. Read more in News As part of this ploy, sources explained how Kavanagh allowed Cahill shoot him in the leg two months after the kidnapping. Kavanagh, who had only suffered a flesh wound, told But the concocted story and move was rejected by the Special Criminal It was the Cahill gang's last big job before its leader was shot dead in 1994. Most read in Irish News Sources who dealt with Kavanagh say he was a "depraved" and "vile" character, who assaulted gardai while in custody multiple times. He was part of Cahill's inner circle, alongside Martin 'The Viper' Foley, John 'The Coach' Traynor, and Martin Cunningham, from the 70s into the 90s. 'DANGEROUS CHARACTER' One source told the Irish Sun: "Martin Cahill kept the likes of Kavanagh very close. "Cahill had carried out a favour for Kavanagh previously. Cahill then held it over Kavanagh and used him. "Kavanagh himself was a bad egg, a sleeveen and a highly dangerous character." NEPHEWS KILLED Kavanagh's nephews Gerard - nicknamed 'Hatchet' - and Paul worked for the Kinahan cartel. But both were later whacked by the deadly mob in 2014 and 2015 respectively. Kavanagh is also related to 'Bomber', who was the second in command for the cartel before being locked up in the UK for two decades for drug trafficking. Kavanagh's funeral notice says his funeral is "private for family and close friends." 4 Dublin gangster Martin Foley was also a part of the gang Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
The Journal
21 hours ago
- The Journal
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Sources we spoke to ahead of today's sentencing said Venezuelan-based Hezbollah operatives were key to the MV Matthew operation. Investigators have assessed that the smuggling operation was ultimately managed from Dubai by the Kinahan Cartel. The gardaí and their international intelligence partners have identified a key part of the operation by Iranian operatives, based in Venezuela and Iran as well as other locations who were working behind the scenes. This was further backed up by the numbers in chat groups used by the smugglers. In return for part funding the operation they would receive money that would be directed back to the Hezbollah group. This gave the Iranians some distance from the money trail, is one of the theories being explored by investigators. It was in the South American phase of the operation where the connections to Iran and Hezbollah were of most benefit. Venezuela and its regime have close connections to Iran and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group which places itself as an alternative to the government in Beirut and has been involved in a recent war with Israel. It's likely the criminals raising funds for Hezbollah came on the radar of the group behind the MV Matthew operation after the Kinahan OCG had developed connections to other drug traffickers with links to Iran. Whatsapp and Signal groups The operation was managed on Whatsapp and Signal. When gardaí examined those messaging groups they determined that the main criminal commander was in the Emirates but that there were also participants in Germany, Turkey, Iran, Britain, the Netherlands and Spain. Sources we spoke to said that the Matthew was in poor condition – its accommodation in a dishevelled state and much of the machinery in a state of disrepair. The drugs gang deployed a retired Ukrainian fishing boat captain – Vitalyi Lapa, one of the eight men sentenced earlier today – to Ireland in July of 2023 and he stayed in various hotels in the Republic and in Northern Ireland. Advertisement His job would be to operate as the expert mariner on a fishing boat that would be bought from unsuspecting fishers somewhere in Ireland. It is believed he was to be joined by an Irish gangster but that that plan fell through and he was joined instead by British man Jamie Harbron. Harbron – who was also sentenced today after entering a guilty plea in the trial last December – pitched himself in Garda interviews as an unwilling vulnerable drug user who was dispatched to Ireland to pay off a debt he owed to criminals. Sources have said that the reality of intelligence gardaí have gathered is that he was a much more willing participant and further up the food chain. In court it was said that his apparent job, arriving by ferry the day before he and several others headed to west Cork to buy the trawler, was to act as a deckhand on the trawler while Lapa, the Ukrainian, would be its pilot. The crew of the MV Matthew on deck passing Cobh flanked by the Army Ranger Wing. Alamy. Alamy. Habron and Lapa met up and headed south to purchase the trawler with two gang members from Newry and a third man. He is a Scottish national who was a senior Kinahan operator who flew in, with the money, from Dubai. The two people from Newry and the man from Scotland remain at large. As they moved towards Castletownbere they could not have known that an elite team from the Garda National Surveillance Unit was following close behind. 'Spare parts' The crew of the Matthew were told the drugs on board were 'spare parts' – but they told gardaí in interviews, after their arrest, that the men who came to load the cargo at sea off Venezuela were heavily armed. To quell their suspicions the Iranian captain Soheil Jelveh (51) offered them a bonus to keep quiet. Jelveh would claim to gardaí that Cumali Ozgen, a Dutch national with connections to Iran, was running the operation. Regardless, both men have now been sentenced and face spells in Irish prisons. In court it was said that Ozgen was a cleaner, but he was in accommodation on the Matthew that is known as the pilot's cabin – the equivalent of a VIP room and right next to the bridge. Gardaí believe that he was the man onboard to monitor proceedings. In court, his defence team admitted he was there to be the 'eyes and ears' of those directing the operation from Dubai, and had no seafaring experience. He took the job, the court was told, in a 'misguided attempt' to provide for his family. Tracking the operation Key to the whole operation was the information that tipped the Irish off to what was going on. This came from analysts at the EU- and UK-funded MAOC-N agency in Portugal along with other high level intelligence sharing. That intelligence is a mix of profiling ships, monitoring communications and high level sharing of data between agencies across the globe with Irish partners. Gardaí from the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, led by Detective Superintendent Keith Halley, began the endgame operation armed with the European agency's intelligence. It was thought first that the drugs would be landed on the east coast near Wicklow and Wexford and the guards deployed specialist units there near Kilmore Quay. What followed was a far more dramatic operation as the ship was stormed and brought to harbour in Cork. Those on board the MV Matthew knew the game was up long before the first boots of the Army Ranger Wing landed on their deck. The Castlemore ran aground off Wexford, en route to Castletownbere, and Habron and Lapa had to be winched to safety. Panicked messages appeared in the Signal and Whatsapp groups. Those messaging began to contemplate putting the drugs in a lifeboat and sailing it to Ireland. They also thought about getting criminals in Dublin to come out and meet them. A long-back-and forth between Irish authorities and the ship's radio then ensued before the order was ultimately given to raid the vessel, following a sign-off from then-Tánaiste and Defence Minister Micheál Martin. The crew of the Matthew sentenced today were relative bit players - just pawns in a much bigger global level enterprise of terror group fundraising and drug cartels. They were Iranian Saied Hassani (39), Filipino Harold Estoesta (31), Ukrainian Mykhailo Gavryk (32), Ukrainian Vitalit Vlasoi (32), Iranian ship's captain Soheil Jelveh (51) and Dutchman Cumali Ozgen (49) Other crew members on board, deemed to have no involvement with the smuggling operation, were not prosecuted. Sources have said that gardaí and other law enforcement agencies are not finished – they still must arrest the other organisers, including those aligned to the Kinahan OCG. Routes have diversified but sources said that Dutch and Iranian gangsters are now running the shipments across the Atlantic either towards Rotterdam, the Irish and Cornwall coast or to Cape Verde and Senegal. As one Irish security source put it: 'We need another few Matthews and that might help to stop it.' Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
