New image of smiling Kinahan cartel boss Liam Byrne emerges as he faces years behind bars

Exclusive: A laughing Byrne was pictured in what is believed to be a prison video chat with his brother James

A new image has emerged of a smiling Kinahan cartel boss Liam Byrne - believed to have been taken nine months ago from inside Belmarsh prison where he has been holed up since June 2023.

Infamous mobster Byrne, 43, and his brother-in-law Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh, 57, dramatically pleaded guilty on Wednesday to their roles in a bizarre plot to deliberately lead the National Crime Agency (NCA) to a seizure of firearms in 2021.

‘Bomber’, who was once named in Ireland’s High Court by gardai as being “at the top of the tree” of the Kinahan cartel, admitted that he put together an insane plan to have his associates hide a stash of firearms.

READ MORE: Kinahan cartel bosses Liam Byrne and 'Bomber' Kavanagh face decades behind bars over firearms plot

READ MORE:'The Family' take title of Ireland's biggest mob from 'fragmented' Kinahans amid €16m drugs swoop

This was so that he could pretend to cooperate, help officers find the guns - and then secure himself a lesser prison sentence after he was sentenced to 21 years in prison at Ipswich Crown Court in March 2020 for a massive drug smuggling operation. However, the plan was foiled after French police smashed the EncroChat communications system in April 2020 and passed information onto the NCA.

Dubliner Byrne was arrested in June 2023 when he travelled from Dubai to in the Alcudia area of Majorca to meet family on the basis of a UK extradition warrant. He was extradited from Spain to the UK in December 2023. Just a month later, a laughing Byrne was pictured in what is believed to be a prison video chat with his brother James.

James, who has no involvement in crime, posted the image of the two of them involved in the video chat to his public Instagram page on January 22 and captioned it: “Good to Talk? See you soon bro, Love ye.”

Prisoners in Belmarsh prison, where Byrne is incarcerated, are allowed to request a secure video call with family members and friends via the Prison Video app.

Liam Byrne is well known to gardai for his involvement in crime and his brother David (34) was shot dead by the Hutch gang at the Regency Hotel, north Dublin, in February 2016 in a Kinahan-Hutch feud attack. Their father James ‘Jaws’ Byrne - a self-described hardened criminal who had been linked to Martin ‘The General’ Cahill died last week in hospital following a lengthy illness.

Liam Byrne, who fled Ireland for the UK in the aftermath of that attack, was named in the High Court as a “trusted lieutenant of Daniel Kinahan and the Kinahan Organised Crime Group,” and had his Crumlin home and other assets seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau.

Both Byrne and Kavanagh admitted two counts of conspiracy to possess a prohibited weapon and two counts of conspiracy to possess ammunition for a firearm without a certificate between January 9, 2020 and June 3, 2021.

Both are now facing years behind bars when they are to be sentenced next month.

Sign up to the Irish Mirror's daily newsletter here and get breaking news and top stories direct to your inbox