ONE YEAR AGO, US law enforcement agencies and the gardaí made a major but unprecedented move against the Kinahan Organised Crime Group (KOCG), introducing international sanctions against many of its members.
Today, a garda is preparing to move to Dubai this summer to enhance relations with police personnel in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the international operation against the cartel continues at a slow-but-steady pace.
The force hopes the move will increase co-operation on possible extraditions but also allow for more intelligence and evidence gathering.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has also travelled to Washington DC in recent months to hold talks with agents working on the Kinahan file.
At the April 2022 press briefing, US authorities announced rewards totalling $15 million for information which helps bring three key members of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group to justice – namely Christy Kinahan Senior, the founder of the cartel, and his sons Christy Kinahan Jr and Daniel Kinahan.
The sanctions they introduced at the same time target seven people who the US Treasury Department describe as key members of the cartel.
The rewards and sanctions make up part of an organised, international action against the Irish-founded crime gang which is being coordinated by US, EU and UK law enforcement. The co-operative was billed as the ultimate regime to bring down the Kinahan Organised Crime Group – but the impact wasn’t immediate and sources have said sanctions will still take a lot longer to move the needle.
Those sources believe that the most significant result of the sanctions so far has seen policing agencies in the US dedicating their focus to the gang with specific funding for operations.
But there have been some wins. For one, the organisations published details of their understanding of the structure of the gang – which included the front companies allegedly used to launder cash.
European Arrest Warrants have also been issued for key figures such as Seán McGovern who is accused of being a close advisor to Daniel Kinahan on “all criminal activities” and of managing the gang’s communications. A key alleged money launderer Johnny Morrissey was already arrested last September by police in Spain.
Standing in official photographs released after the arrest was a garda detective – his raid jacket clearly a communication to the gang that the guards were working closely with Guardia Civil colleagues on the Costa del Sol.
Where are they?
Much speculation over the past 12 months has centred around where the Kinahan clan are located – with some suggestions of them being scattered in nations as diverse as Zimbabwe, Yemen, Hong Kong and Qatar.
Confirmation of exact whereabouts of all the main players is notoriously difficult to ascertain but sources believe that they are still in the UAE and the broader Middle East.
The use of the diplomatic might of the United States to convince the authorities in Dubai to co-operate and hand them over has not had huge success yet.
But the arrest and extradition of suspects out of the UAE to European countries is not without precedent.
The Italian authorities moved Rafaele Imperiale, a key figure in Italian mafia group the Camorra, after he was arrested in Dubai. Ridouan Taghi, a Dutch-Moroccan organised crime figure, was also arrested and extradited to stand trial in the Netherlands.
Imperiale and Taghi are both allies of the KOCG and are close friends and business associates of Daniel Kinahan.
The Commora is arguably one of the biggest organised crime groups in the world – based in the Italian city of Naples – and their murder and mayhem mode of business has led Italian investigators to launch massive crackdowns on their activities. Such is their scope of nefarious behaviour that they have even been linked to illegal oil sales from ISIS-backed brokers.
The extraditions have highlighted a pathway now open to An Garda Síochána with Drew Harris confirming that other nations’ successes have been noted as a detective superintendent from the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) plans his move to Dubai. As announced by the Justice Minister last July, he will act as a fulltime liaison between gardaí and local law enforcement.
There have also been several meetings between gardaí and US, UK and European law enforcement agencies. EUROPOL and individual police forces in the Netherlands and Spain are also feeding into the operation.
The Journal understands Commissioner Drew Harris has travelled to Washington DC and met with agents working on the Kinahan file in recent months.
Harris, speaking last week, said he is confident that the KOCG will face justice but did not indicate if that will be in Ireland or elsewhere.
“I haven’t a preference,” he told reporters.
My preference is to see them in front of some form of criminal tribunal.
“But I would also point out that we ourselves are stepping up our activity in the middle east and we’ll be putting a Detective Superintendent out to the UAE and that has proved very, very important in other nations in terms of getting intelligence, acting on that intelligence but also then in terms of obtaining evidence as well.
“So we hope to see good advances when that appointment happens, which will be in the summer,” he said.
Harris said that key advances have been made, not just in the US, but in Europe too.
“Every month I’m updated on progress between ourselves and our partners. We’re still working very closely together, and it’s a very good example of action between many nations directed towards what is a transnational crime group.
“Work carries on, we always knew this would be a difficult target but they are much diminished from what it was a year ago,” he added.
Rather than the Kinahans being a criminal cartel megalith, they are just members of a broader global cartel which involves various groups.
The KOCG is estimated to be worth €1 billion – their specific expertise is in the logistics of moving vast quantities of drugs from manufacturing bases in South America to the European mainland and also to locations like Australia.
The old method of drug traffickers carrying small quantities in bags or in the bodywork of vehicles is a thing of the past – shipments are now measured in tonnes and travel concealed amongst large-scale international trade on cargo ships.
While the immediate action mooted this time last year at the announcement in Dublin Castle has not materialised, the methodical destruction of the assets of the gang progresses.
Sources have said that the strategy around the offer of a reward and sanctions process is about limiting the KOCG’s ability to trade and move around.
But, more importantly, it is also about encouraging people within the gang to turn against their own.
The court cases bringing KOCG members to justice have continued with more than 70 people now in Irish and foreign prisons – some of whom were caught as they either planned murders or had already committed the killing.
The gardaí already have liaison operations in South America, Spain, France and North America – the departure of another officer to Asia later this year will further extend the reach of Irish efforts to demolish the KOCG.
Authorities have also seized cars and even a light aircraft in searches against the gang.
It has become more difficult for KOCG to launder cash and to rinse the proceeds of crime clean so it can be used in normal transactions.
Despite all that, sources admit that the crime group is still making money off the drugs trade, particularly cocaine, as it keeps flowing into the country.
And the Kinahans are still managing to live a high life – spending their wealth on five-star luxury in the middle east.
While all security sources we spoke to believe that the international operations targeting the gang will bear fruit, they also say that there is a long road ahead.
Statements have been requested from the US Embassy in Dublin and An Garda Síochána.
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