Kinahan gangster Peadar Keating to be extradited to UK on arms conspiracy charges

The senior Cartel executive appeared in the High Court on Friday to drop his fight against extradition and is expected to be detained in the UK by Christmas.

Keating has been in prison here since pleading guilty to running a criminal gang, but is accused of conspiring to amass an arsenal of weapons in a botched plot hatched by Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh to get a reduced sentence.

Kavanagh and his brother-in-law Liam Byrne appeared at the Old Bailey last month along with his accomplice Shaun Kent, from Liverpool. They pleaded guilty to conspiring to stockpile weapons and ammunition so Kavanagh could hand them over to police in order to receive a lighter sentence for drug trafficking.

The Sunday World previously revealed the plot was concocted after Kavanagh met Bobby Gerrard, Steven Gerrard’s cousin, in Dovegate prison and told him the scheme would cut his sentence by years.

Kavanagh’s son Jack pleaded guilty after the incident and is awaiting sentencing.

Keating is understood to have fallen out with Kavanagh and when he first realized he was wanted in the UK in connection with the plot, he told prison officers his former boss was a ‘dirty rat’.

“He is furious with Kavanagh and has completely washed his hands of him,” a prison source said. “He doesn’t have a good word to say about her and wants nothing to do with her.

“He says Kavanagh couldn’t get his comeuppance and took them all down with him to save himself. Keating is particularly disgusted that Kavanagh would involve his own child.”

Encrochat phones were key to the NCA’s investigation into the conspiracy; This backfired spectacularly on Kavanagh when messages related to this incident were collected during a hack of the criminals’ network.

Messages read during the sentencing hearing of Kavanagh, Byrne and Kent suggest Keating was reluctant to become involved and refused to receive calls from “Bomber” from prison.

When Kavanagh could not reach him, he sent his son to Keating’s home in Tamworth, Birmingham, and got him to give him a mobile phone so he could give orders from behind bars.

Keating is unlikely to fight the charges in the UK. Byrne, who played a similar role to that allegedly undertaken by Keating, was sentenced to five years in prison. Kavanagh, who masterminded and orchestrated the plan, was sentenced to six years in prison.

The High Court this week ordered Keating to be extradited to the UK within 10 to 25 days after arrangements have been made for his transfer.