LONDON — The alleged leader of an Irish organized crime gang has been extradited to Ireland from Dubai to face charges that he ran an international drug smuggling and money laundering empire that stretched to Britain, Spain and the United States.
The Irish Air Corps plane carrying Daniel Kinahan, 49, landed at an airport on the outskirts of Dublin on Sunday evening after courts in Dubai refused to block his extradition.
Daniel Joseph Kinahan is accused of running an international drug smuggling and money laundering empire.
(U.S. State Department)
Kinahan was taken to the Special Criminal Court in Dublin where he was charged with directing the activities of a criminal organization. He was ordered to remain in custody at the high-security Portlaoise Prison about 90 miles southwest of the capital. His next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 5.
Ireland’s Special Criminal Court handles all organized crime and terrorism cases, as well as others where prosecutors believe the ordinary courts are inadequate to ensure the “effective administration of justice.” Cases are heard by a panel of three judges without a jury.
Irish media report that a huge security operation is underway to ensure Kinahan faces justice. It includes armed police and members of the armed forces and the prison service — which recently acquired a bombproof escort van to transport organized-crime suspects, terrorists and other high-risk prisoners, Irish broadcaster RTE reported.
The security precautions come amid allegations that Kinahan’s organization is engaged in a bloody gang war with another Irish organized crime group. U.S. authorities said in 2022 that the feud had resulted in 18 murders as they announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the disruption of the Kinahan organization or the arrest and conviction of Daniel Kinahan.
“Since February 2016, the [Kinahan Organized Crime Group] has been involved in a gang war with another group in Ireland and Spain, resulting in numerous murders, including of two innocent bystanders,” the U.S. Treasury Department said in 2022, when it sanctioned six members of the Kinahan gang and three businesses linked to it.
Irish police, with the help of authorities in Britain, Spain and the U.S., have been pursuing members of the Kinahan gang since at least 2016, when the feud led to a daytime shooting during the weigh-in for a boxing match at a Dublin hotel. Kinahan was a boxing promoter at the time.
The authorities allege the gang smuggled tens of millions of dollars’ worth of illegal drugs, including cocaine and cannabis, as well as guns into Europe, then used a network of apparently legitimate enterprises to launder the profits.
Kinahan is believed to have run the day-to-day operations of the gang from his base in Dubai, the U.S. Treasury said. That includes buying “large quantities of cocaine” from South America, organizing its distribution in Ireland and attempting to smuggle drugs into the U.K., the agency said.
Kinahan has also instructed gang members to deliver money to a number of people in prison, including one who was convicted of attempting to murder someone on behalf of the organization, the U.S. Treasury said.
During a phone interview with Scottish podcaster James English last week, Kinahan denied being an organized crime boss and described himself as the victim of a conspiracy to tarnish his reputation. He said the extradition proceedings were expedited because of a deal between the Irish and Dubai governments and he hoped his trial in Dublin would help clear his name.
“I believe, in a way, I am a scapegoat,” he said in the interview posted on TikTok. “And anyone that looks into this so-called feud that they say they have created, then you will see, you will see things yourself if someone has the time to look into it.”
In March 2022, the head of the Kinahan organization in Britain, Thomas “Bomber” Kavanagh, was sentenced to 21 years in prison after he was convicted or orchestrating drug shipments into the U.K. Two other men were sentenced to 20 years and 19 ½ years for their part in the crimes.
In the course of their investigation, police found 15 kilograms of cocaine and 220 kilograms of cannabis inside asphalt removal equipment fitted with a tracking device at the port of Dover on the English Channel, Britain’s National Crime Agency said when Kavanagh was sentenced. Cannabis remains illegal in Britain and much of Europe.
Kavanagh lived in a mansion equipped with bulletproof glass and reinforced doors in Tamworth, northeast of Birmingham. When police raided the property in 2019 they seized numerous weapons and 35,000 pounds of cash in various currencies, including euros and Emirati dirhams, as well as British pounds, the crime agency said.
In September 2022, Spanish police arrested an Irishman suspected of laundering money for the Kinahan organization after raiding a property in Malaga on Spain’s Costa del Sol.
The organization was suspected of registering companies in Britain, Spain and Gibraltar, then creating a brand of vodka promoted in bars and nightclubs along the Costa del Sol to disguise the source of its earnings, according to the British crime agency, which assisted in the investigation.
“The Kinahan organized crime network transcends national boundaries, which is why international law enforcement operations like this are necessary,” the agency said at the time.