Nicola Tallent

This was how the cartel's profits were laundered, through spending sprees and rolls of cash handed across the shop counters in Harrods.

The definition of ill-gotten gains was hanging in wardrobes in his luxury mansion in Tamworth.

Cartel members know the risk of peddling drugs across international borders.

But when officers start rifling through their six-figure wardrobes, confiscating their luxury watches and handbag collections, it does hit a nerve.

The court's inventory of Bomber's lavish spending gave an inkling into just how far removed he'd become from the day-to-day drug trade.

He oversaw the delegation of smuggling routes of finance and of enforcement to trusted lieutenants.

The proceedings in Ipswich Crown Court didn't just mark the fall of Thomas Bommer Cavanagh's personal empire.

They also signal something far bigger.

Bomber's collapse marks the first true fracture in what had long looked like an impenetrable underworld machine.

The cartel's chief strategist, the man who kept its international supply lines running smoothly, had finally been taken down.

Seen as untouchable for years, his sentence for importing tens of millions of pounds of drugs was a major shot across the bow of the Kinahan cartel.

And just two weeks after Kavanaugh's sentencing, the United States raised the stakes.

You've been listening to an extract from our nine-part series, The Science of Fear, about the rise and fall of Daniel Kinahan's right-hand man, Thomas Bomber Kavanagh.

To listen to all nine parts, log on to crimeworld.com and hit subscribe.

I'm Nicola Tallent and this is Crime World, a podcast about criminals, drugs and the sins of the underworld.

If you like this podcast and want to learn more about crime, go to our new website www.crimeworld.com for stories, extras and podcast subscriber specials.

Three men convicted in relation to the brutal kidnap and torture of businessman Kevin Lunny have failed in their bid to overturn the court's decision.

Alan Hart, Alan O'Brien and Darren Redmond were hired during a campaign of intimidation against directors of former Sean Quinn companies.

And abducted Lunny broke his leg and beat him before branding his chest with the letters QIH or Quinn Industrial Holdings.

Defence lawyers working for the men say they will now launch an appeal against the length of their sentences, which were 30, 28 and 18 years respectively.