Veteran gangland figure Jo Jo Kavanagh dies suddenly at home

Sunday World

10 hours ago

A former member of the gang led by Martin 'The General' Cahill, he was an uncle of jailed Kinahan Cartel man Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh
Veteran gangland figure Jo Jo Kavanagh has died after being treated for an illness in a Dublin hospital.
A former member of the gang led by Martin 'The General' Cahill, he was an uncle of jailed Kinahan Cartel man Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh.
He was also an uncle to murdered gangsters Gerard 'Hatchet' Kavanagh (pictured below) and Paul Kavanagh, believed to have been killed on the orders of the Kinahans.
A notice posted online said that Kavanagh had died suddenly at home on July 2.
It stated the funeral was private for family and close friends.
Kavanagh, from Crumlin, became notorious after his role in the infamous tiger-kidnap of bank director Jim Lacey by The General's gang.
Gerard Kavanagh
Armed and masked men took Lacey and members of his family hostage after invading his Blackrock home in November 1993.
Threatened with being shot, the banker's wife Suzanne, children and a babysitter were held as Mr Lacey was forced to carry out the gang's orders.
Jo Jo Kavanagh turned up at the house and changed into one of the victim's suits and told him that he was also a hostage.
Jo Jo Kavanagh was an uncle of Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh
Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 6th
His job was to accompany the bank director to the branch at College Green the next morning and to take the available cash.
It later emerged there was an estimated €7 to €8 million in the vaults of the National Irish Bank branch.
Fearing being trapped in the vaults if the Gardaí had been alerted, Kavanagh did not venture in to inspect it, missing out on what would have been the biggest ever heist in Ireland at the time.
He took £243,000 punts from the branch manager and loaded it into his van before driving away with members of the Lacey family later found in a stable near the Phoenix Park.
Jo Jo Kavanagh would later tell gardaí that he had been kidnapped and forced to carry out the gang's demands, handing over the money to a motorcyclist.
Gardaí did not believe his story and, given his previous convictions for armed robbery, he became a suspect.
The following January Kavanagh was shot in the leg when he said he was confronted by masked men who asked why he hadn't taken all the money from the bank.
When asked by Evening Herald reporter Brendan Farrelly, if he had staged the shooting, Kavanagh denied it.
He served seven years of a 12-year sentence and emerged from prison in 2003 when it was reported he was no longer involved in crime.
Other members of his extended family remained involved in gang activity, as organised criminals switched from heists to hard drugs.
His nephew Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh, a Criminal Assets Bureau target in the mid 1990s, rose to become the Kinahan Cartel's number one man in the UK.
Hie is serving a 21-year sentence for a multi-million-euro cocaine smuggling plot and got another conviction over a bid to hide weapons for the police to find in return for leniency.
Jo Jo Kavanagh's nephews, brothers Gerard 'Hatchet' and Paul Kavanagh were also high- profile gangsters involved in the drugs trade linked to the Kinahan Cartel.
'Hatchet' Kavanagh was murdered in Spain in 2014 while Paul died in 2015 after being shot in Drumcondra after being lured to a meeting.