When Robbie Lawlor was murdered outside a house in the Ardoyne area of Belfast in April 2020, reporters were left with more questions than answers.

What was one of Ireland’s most feared criminals doing in the north? Why had he crossed the border? Who had the audacity to arrange for him to be shot while up there?

This episode of Double Cross: The Murder of Robbie Lawlor was originally released in November 2024.

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The murder of Robbie Lawlor in Belfast in April 2020 is sure to be one of the biggest gangland stories of the decade.

In an eight part podcast series called Double Cross, Crime World investigated just what happened in the run up to and aftermath of the broad daylight assassination of Ireland’s most wanted.

As we run the series over the coming week, Nicola talks to Niall Donald as we update our listeners and viewers on the cases before the courts to date.

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Staring down decades in prison, Bomber attempts a final gamble by orchestrating a fake weapons surrender from behind bars to trick the authorities into granting him a lighter sentence.

The deception backfires spectacularly when compromised encrypted messages unmask his lies, resulting in additional years of jail time and dragging his own son and family into the ruins of his collapsed empire.

The Science of Fear: The Bloody Reign of Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh was originally released as a subscriber-only series in January 2026 on crimeworld.com.

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A seemingly trivial pink stun gun found atop a kitchen cupboard provides the legal hook to pull Bomber from his life of luxury and lock him behind bars while investigators build their massive narcotics case.

The untouchable persona of the cartel boss finally shatters during a high-stakes interrogation, where the sheer weight of the evidence causes him to physically collapse as the reality of a 25-year sentence sets in.

The Science of Fear: The Bloody Reign of Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh was originally released as a subscriber-only series in January 2026 on crimeworld.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Bomber waits in the shadows of his English mansion, a single forgotten logistics document from an Irish raid allows the National Crime Agency to bridge the gap between his legitimate front and his billion-euro drug empire.

Meticulous digital forensics begin to peel back the layers of his encrypted secrecy, exposing “The Gaffer” as the cold CEO of a transnational narcotics machine that law enforcement is finally ready to dismantle.

The Science of Fear: The Bloody Reign of Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh was originally released as a subscriber-only series in January 2026 on crimeworld.com.

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Bomber’s empire begins to unravel, as an innocuous scrap of paper found in a raid of a weapons-filled industrial unit in Dublin gives international law enforcement a thread to follow in their investigations. Meanwhile, a lavish marriage ceremony in Dubai attracts a lot of attention.

The Science of Fear: The Bloody Reign of Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh was originally released as a subscriber-only series in January 2026 on crimeworld.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The criminal underworld is shattered when gunmen armed with AK-47s storm a Dublin hotel weigh-in, leaving Bomber’s brother-in-law dead and igniting a “psychotic” revenge feud that turns the city into a war zone.

Forced out of the shadows, Bomber stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Daniel Kinahan at a military-style funeral, a public show of defiance that finally earns him and the gang the undivided attention of international law enforcement.

The Science of Fear: The Bloody Reign of Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh was originally released as a subscriber-only series in January 2026 on crimeworld.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the “champagne years” of the international drug trade, Bomber emerges as a global power-broker, helping Daniel Kinahan forge a lethal “Super Cartel” alliance with Dutch and Italian kingpins to dominate the European cocaine market.

Amidst a backdrop of first-class flights and fortified mansions, he earns the nickname “Santa” for his flash displays of wealth, even as murder and violence underpin his reign.

The Science of Fear: The Bloody Reign of Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh was originally released as a subscriber-only series in January 2026 on crimeworld.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.