Kinahan cartel boss Liam Byrne's son parties with Conor McGregor and Katie Price
A photo, posted on social media by Conor McGregor, shows Lee Byrne with close pal and Byrne Organised Crime Group associate Nathan 'Biggie' Little posing next to the troubled UFC fighter.
Renowned model Katie Price is also seen in the snap, sitting on the lap of a beaming McGregor. Republic of Ireland and Eredivisie footballer Troy Parrot is also pictured.
It comes as McGregor is awaiting his appeal at the start of next month after a jury found him liable for the assault of Nikita Hand in the Beacon Hotel in South Dublin.
Lee Byrne, who has no involvement in crime, is the son of criminal Liam Byrne - who was most recently released from prison in the UK after serving a relatively short time behind bars for his role in sourcing firearms for brother-in-law and fellow mob boss Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh.
Mobster Liam is lying low in the UK while being tagged by prison authorities - after being granted early release due to ongoing overcrowding concerns. His son Lee, however, is regularly seen partying across the globe with pal 'Biggie' Little - who Dublin's High Court heard was a member of the 'Byrne Organised Crime Group', led by Lee's father.
In the High Court, the Criminal Assets Bureau identified the 24-year-old Dubliner as being a low-level member of the Byrne Organised Crime Group. Little, who is from the Drimnagh area of the city, is a close friend of Liam Byrne's son Lee, who is the boyfriend of Steven Gerrard's daughter, Lilly-Ella.
Liam Byrne, 44, himself a powerful figure in the Kinahan cartel, was jailed for his role in trying to acquire firearms from anywhere he could find them after he was caught doing so in secret encrypted conversations that were hacked in 2021.
The plot was designed so that investigators would find a cache of 11 powerful weapons hidden in a field in Newry, Co Down in May 2021 following a 'tip off' from Kavanagh, who met officers and told them about it from behind bars while awaiting sentence for importing drugs.
Liam Byrne's brother David was infamously shot dead in the Regency Hotel shooting on February 5, 2016. Byrne's death significantly escalated the Kinahan Hutch feud - and saw the cartel go on to murder 16 more men. Byrne's boss Daniel Kinahan was the primary target of the Hutch gang that day - and is still living it up in Dubai despite his cartel crumbling all around him.
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Liam Byrne was jailed - alongside the once-powerful mobster 'Bomber' - who led the Kinahan cartel's day-to-day operations in the UK. Kavanagh is serving a 21-year prison sentence for conspiracy to import some €36 million worth of drugs into the UK.
In 2019, the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) seized much of Liam Byrne's assets following a high-profile case. The CAB, in its High Court proceedings against the Byrne Organised Crime Group (BOCG), named Liam as its leader, and also named several individuals as the beneficiaries of the group.
The High Court ruled that assets worth €2.7 million - cars, jewellery, cash and the Raleigh Square home seized by the CAB - were the proceeds of crime. As part of their investigations, CAB investigators claimed Byrne was at the 'very top tier' of organised crime in Ireland.
In submissions to the High Court, the CAB outlined his links to Christy 'Dapper Don' Kinahan's cartel. It claimed: 'The target of this investigation is the Liam Byrne Organised Crime Group. This group is aligned to the Kinahan Organised Crime Group (KOCG) and is involved in the importation for sale and supply of controlled drugs into this jurisdiction.
'The investigation has uncovered a system of money laundering used by this group to hide the beneficial ownership of the various assets in their possession. The main target of this investigation, Liam Byrne, is a close and trusted associate and lieutenant of Daniel Kinahan.
"The KOCG is an international gang involved in the importation and controlled distribution of drugs into this jurisdiction, the UK and mainland Europe. It has bases in Spain, the UK, Netherlands and Dubai.
'Liam Byrne and Sean McGovern are at the very top tier of this group and are regularly spotted in the company of Daniel and [his brother] Christopher Kinahan.'
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