THE Kinahan cartel used ‘Fat’ Freddie Thompson’s son to smuggle €5,000 through a Spanish airport when he was just nine, The Irish Sun can reveal.
But Brad Dempsey was left with the cash after being quizzed for half an hour by authorities 15 years ago.
The now 24-year-old was jailed for eight years on Tuesday after shooting at a packed car in 2022.
His sentencing hearing heard he was exposed to crime at a young age and had a difficult childhood.
And we can now reveal how mob boss Daniel Kinahan’s mum, Jean Boylan, brought Fat Freddie’s then young son through Malaga Airport stuffed with drug money.
The incident was detailed in a call between Boylan and her other son, Christopher Jnr, on February 26, 2010.
At the time, Spanish cops were tapping the cartel’s phones as part of Operation Shovel.
Boylan — the ex-wife of Christy ‘Dapper Don’ Kinahan — told Christopher Jnr that officers took Brad into a room before letting him go after half an hour.
Christopher asked if they took the money, but she replied “no” and said they gave it back.
Fat Freddie’s lad had €2,500 in cash stashed in his pocket and another €2,500 in his shoes.
Boylan, who died in 2014, complained that “he’s only a child” and said the Spanish officials had asked for Brad’s full name.
Brad would only go on to lead a life of crime like his feared father, who is serving life behind bars for the Kinahan murder of David ‘Daithi’ Douglas in July 2016.
‘ABSOLUTE HOTHEAD’
Senior sources told how Brad developed into a “dangerous” and “violent” character who attempted to live off his dad’s reputation.
He is suspected of being behind a number of violent incidents since 2021, including a stabbing, while he was also dealing drugs.
A source told The Irish Sun: “Dempsey is an absolute hothead, extremely dangerous and violent.
“In many ways, he is just like his father Freddie, but when you look at the stuff Brad was exposed to in his childhood you have to ask, did he ever have a chance in the first place?
‘ATTEMPTING TO EMULATE HIS FATHER’
“There’s absolutely no doubt that Brad was attempting to emulate his father. Freddie ruled the south inner city by fear and people were terrified of him. So Brad was working off the back of that.”
We can also reveal Brad is locked up on a protection landing in Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison after clashing with a number of inmates since he was incarcerated there in August 2023.
Sources explained he was run from the main population after a number of verbal altercations.
One said: “He cannot keep his mouth shut. He is on a protection landing because of it.”
SHOT UP CAR
Judge Martin Nolan this week handed Brad his hefty eight-year sentence after he shot five times into a packed Ford Galaxy car.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard he was “agitated” as he got a taxi to Margaret Kennedy Road, in Dublin 8, on the morning of January 19, 2022, after his pal had been assaulted earlier on.
Then before 12pm on the day, Brad emerged from a house with two others and he shot up a car with four men inside.
CCTV showed smoke rising from the gun as a completely innocent bystander walked with their baby in a pram just yards away.
POSSESSION OF GUN
Brad was arrested in August 2023 but denied any involvement in the shooting.
However Brad, of Drimnagh, Dublin, later pleaded guilty to the possession of a gun in suspicious circumstances.
Cops had identified him as the shooter after obtaining extensive CCTV footage and other evidence.
Brad has previous convictions for the production of an article in the course of a dispute, violent disorder and drug offences, the court heard this week.
ON DRUGS FROM 13
He was using drugs from the age of 13 and was on cocaine by the time he was 15.
His counsel, Padraig Dwyer SC, said he had a difficult childhood and was exposed to crime at a young age.
Mr Dwyer handed in a letter from his mother Vicky, Fat Freddie’s ex partner, who said she carries a “lot of guilt” over what Brad was exposed to as a child.
After Judge Nolan sentenced him to eight years, mum Vicky fled the courtroom in tears.
