The High Court has been informed that Peter ‘Peadar’ Keating, a senior Kinahan gang member currently incarcerated, implicated in a failed attempt to collect a cache of weaponry to obtain a reduced sentence for Thomas Kavanagh, a drug lord of the cartel, should not be extradited to the UK. Keating, who is currently sought in the UK, could face a life sentence there over an accusation of trying to subvert the course of justice.
In March 2022, Kavanagh, a 56-year-old high-ranking international drug dealer in the Kinahan cartel, was incarcerated for 21 years in England. He was convicted for importing cocaine and cannabis into the UK with a value exceeding €35 million. The UK’s National Crime Agency referred to Kavanagh, who confessed to drug trafficking, as the leading individual in the UK for the Kinahan crime syndicate.
Keating, another senior member of the Kinahan cartel, was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment by the Special Criminal Court in Ireland in September 2021. This was for masterminding an attempted murder plot against James ‘Mago’ Gately, a member of the rival Hutch gang. Hailing from Rowlagh Green, Clondalkin, Dublin 22, the 43-year-old Keating admitted to managing the activities of a criminal organisation between December 2016 and April 2017, both within and outside Ireland. This involved an ongoing effort to eliminate Gately, a byproduct of a dispute between the Hutch and Kinahan criminal factions.
In November 2022, the Westminster Magistrates Court in the UK issued a warrant for Keating’s extradition. The allegations insinuate that Keating and his associates compiled a large collection of firearms from the Netherlands. This purportedly formed part of a scheme to present them to UK law enforcement as proof of Kavanagh’s co-operation, in order to secure him a lighter sentence. The warrant underlines that Keating is required for nine alleged offences, one being the charge of subverting the course of justice, which could result in a life sentence. Keating also faces eight charges of conspiracy to own firearms and ammunition, which date from January to June 2020.
The summons indicates that in the Spring of 2020, the French police intercepted an EncroChat communication conduit used by potential criminal groups, subsequently sharing this information with UK law enforcement. The court document suggests Keating operated under the alias “short-texture” as shown by chat transcripts obtained by French officials.
Keating is implicated in “orchestrated unlawful acts” in the purported “acquisition of firearms and ammunition” and allegedly played a significant part “in procuring firearms and ammunition”. The summons further suggests that Keating, along with others – among them Liam Byrne and Thomas Kavanagh’s son, Jack – conspired to own firearms and ammunition with the objective of helping Thomas Kavanagh minimize his sentence by feigning cooperation with the police.
It is suggested in the legal document that Keating was fundamental in implementing directives for [Thomas] Kavanagh and coordinated with outside parties to source firearms and ammunition from within the UK and abroad to lessen Kavanagh’s sentence.
Ronan Munro, the Senior Counsel representing Keating, argued to Mr Justice Patrick McGrath during a High Court hearing on Wednesday that there were two facets to the conspiracy charge presented in the warrant – the conspiracy agreement itself and the location of its execution. Mr. Munro cited that the court order, issued by a magistrate, explicitly referred to the firearms offenses taking place in England and Wales. However, the warrant did not specify Keating’s exact location between January 2020 and the time the weapons were found in May 2021.
As per Munro, his client couldn’t have been in England or Wales for ten months of this timeframe, considering his detainment in Ireland on 1st July 2020. He also indicated that the legal disparities between England and Wales, which share a unified legal system, and Northern Ireland, had led to Northern Ireland being considered as “foreign land” by the warrant’s issuing state.
If it turns out that Keating spent the period of the alleged crime in the Netherlands, Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland, then, according to Munro, England should not be given custody of his client. Therefore, any agreement into any alleged conspiracy by his client, or the discovery of the firearm cache in Co Armagh, both fall outside the jurisdiction of the warrant, Munro argued.
Mr Munro has contested allegations that the existence of intercepted text messages confirm the whereabouts of his client. The individual in question, an Irish national, could not possibly be a usual resident of the UK as he was incarcerated in Ireland. “Mr Keating was not plotting any misconduct and most definitely was not present in the UK. This accusation is utterly baseless,” stated the defending attorney.
Furthermore, Mr Munro asserted that severe critique of the conditions prevailing in British prisons in recent media reports could also imply potential inhumane treatment if his client were to be imprisoned there. He brought to light the issues of high density population, escalating violence and lack of sufficient staff in these facilities, making a reference to a 2003 precedent where a German court declined the extradition of a man alleged of drug crimes to the UK due to the poor state of the prisons.
The proceedings presided over by Mr Justice Patrick McGrath are scheduled to resume on Thursday.