Kinahan Organised Crime Group<\/a> \u2013 still one of Europe\u2019s biggest drug trafficking cartels – is now in custody in Dubai pending the commencement of extradition court hearings.<\/p>\n\u201cThis is really good for An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na and other authorities, and for Ireland, but it\u2019s particularly good for the communities most affected \u2013 and to see justice being done,\u201d former assistant commissioner Pat Leahy said.<\/p>\n
The commander of the Dublin North Central Division during the Kinahan-Hutch feud, which claimed 18 lives \u2013 16 at the hands of the Kinahan cartel \u2013 said people in Dublin\u2019s north inner city, in particular, will be \u201crelieved and satisfied\u201d by news of the arrest.<\/p>\n
Former assistant commissioner Michael O\u2019Sullivan, who investigated the Kinahans at many levels, told the Irish Examiner the arrest was \u201cincredibly significant\u201d and a tribute to the years of hard work by garda\u00ed and Irish authorities.<\/p>\n
If, as is likely, Kinahan contests the extradition, it could take a number of months, if the extradition proceedings are successful, before he is sent home.<\/p>\n
His senior lieutenant Sean McGovern, who was arrested in Dubai in October 2024, contested his extradition and it took seven months before he was put on an Irish Air Corps plane back to Dublin.<\/p>\n
He was the first person extradited from the UAE to Ireland and sources say it is possible the second case could proceed more quickly.<\/p>\n
Kinahan, aged 48, was arrested last Wednesday \u2013 less than two days after Irish prosecution officers submitted their extradition file to UAE authorities.<\/p>\n
The son of cartel founder Christy Kinahan fled from Spain to the UAE in 2017, a year after he escaped being killed by a Hutch assassination team at the Regency Hotel in north Dublin in February 2016.<\/p>\n
In April 2022, on foot of international efforts by then assistant garda commissioner John O\u2019Driscoll, US authorities placed a combined \u20ac15 million bounty, as well as travel and financial restrictions, on Daniel, Christy and Daniel\u2019s brother Christopher Junior \u2013 all living in palatial residences in UAE.<\/p>\n
A month ago, McGovern, from Kildare Road, Crumlin, pleaded guilty to directing the activities of a criminal organisation and to the murder of Noel Kirwan, in Clondalkin, just before Christmas 2016 and other gangland offences. He is due to be sentenced in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
The Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau led the investigation and submitted extensive files to the DPP seeking Kinahan\u2019s extradition to face charges of directing a criminal organisation and the murder of Eddie Hutch, the brother of Gerry \u2018The Monk\u2019 Hutch, just three days after the Regency attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They eventually got the green light from the State prosecutor, who sent the file to the UAE at the start of this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the positives is that the DPP would not issue the extradition warrant unless they believe the evidence is there,\u201d Mr Leahy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou only get one bite of the cherry, the investigation is over, we are now at charging stage and it\u2019s on that basis the Dubai police arrested him \u2013 for extradition to be charged.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cHe\u2019s entitled to a defence but at some stage in the near future he\u2019s probably coming home \u2013 and coming home to be brought to the courts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A statement issued by Garda HQ said: \u201cToday\u2019s arrest is another extremely important demonstration of the need for international law enforcement cooperation in tackling transnational organised crime.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It said its relationship with the UAE and its police \u201cis valued\u201d.<\/p>\n
In its statement, Dubai police said they had arrested an \u201cIrish fugitive tied to a transnational organised crime network\u201d.<\/p>\n
It said the arrest took place on 15 April, less than two days after it received a \u201cjudicial file\u201d from Irish authorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpecialised teams immediately launched intensive search and surveillance operations, leading to the suspect\u2019s capture within 48 hours of the warrant being issued,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
Justice Minister Jim O\u2019Callaghan said he had contacted his UAE counterpart Minister of Justice, His Excellency Abdullah Sultan bin Awad Al Nuaimi, to express his thanks and acknowledge the \u201cstrong judicial co-operation in criminal matters\u201d between Ireland and the UAE.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI would like to commend all involved in today\u2019s development, which is the result of tireless work by the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, officials in the Department of Justice with their UAE counterparts, the Department of Foreign Affairs and other agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The clock is ticking on the extradition back to Ireland of top gangland \u201cfugitive\u201d Daniel Kinahan after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[27007,61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-404776","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-daniel-kinahan","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}