Reputed Irish drug lord Daniel Kinahan is flown to Dublin to stand trial

After a decade away from Ireland, the accused leader of a global criminal organization is imprisoned back home near Dublin, awaiting a court date in the fall.

On August 9, Daniel Kinahan was flown in custody from Dubai’s World Central International Airport to the outskirts of Dublin on an Irish Air Corps aircraft, according to The Irish Sun. From there, police escorted the 49-year-old Dublin native to court for a 14-minute appearance to be charged. He was then taken to Portlaoise Prison, about 90 miles southwest of Dublin.

Four months earlier, in April, authorities in Dubai, a United Arab Emirates city on the Persian Gulf, detained Kinahan on an Irish arrest warrant. Before being extradited back to Ireland, he was held in Al-Awir Central Prison in Dubai, according to The Irish Sun. That newspaper is among other media outlets that have monitored the Kinahan gang’s activities in Ireland and abroad throughout the years. Stephen Breen, a crime reporter at The Irish Sun, has written several nonfiction books about the Kinahan cartel and other Irish gangsters. His latest book, written with fellow Irish Sun reporter John Hand, is Kinahan Assassins: The Ruthless Hit Squads Who Brought Terror to Dublin Streets and How They Were Stopped.

In Ireland, Kinahan, who reportedly has been engaged in drug and weapons trafficking as well as money laundering, is charged with directing the activities of a criminal organization between October 18, 2015, and April 6, 2017. Those dates coincide with a deadly Irish gang war that pitted the Kinahan clan against the reputed Hutch crime group, resulting in 18 killings during the feud. The battle came into public view on February 5, 2016, during a weigh-in held at Dublin’s Regency Hotel for an upcoming boxing match. A six-member hit team entered the lobby, apparently looking for Daniel Kinahan, then a boxing promoter, and killed a Kinahan lieutenant, 33-year-old David Byrne.

After the Regency shooting, Kinahan fled to Spain before moving to Dubai. Since then, Irish police, along with authorities from the United States, Great Britain, and Spain, have sought to bring Kinahan and other members of the transnational gang to justice. The U.S. State Department offered up to a $5 million reward for information leading to the financial disruption of the Kinahan Transnational Criminal Organization and the arrest “and/or conviction of Daniel Joseph Kinahan.” His next court appearance is set for October 5.

Life on the run

Although Daniel Kinahan is behind bars, others in the organization, including his father and younger brother, Christopher Kinahan Jr., are still at large. It has been reported that the remaining fugitives might seek refuge in Russia or Iran. Seeming to enjoy life on the run, however, the patriarch of the billion-dollar criminal empire, Christopher Kinahan Sr., known as the Dapper Don, has posted social media reviews of restaurants in the UAE and elsewhere. In one review, he praised a meal at a Dubai bistro that included an “açai bowl, followed by eggs with almond bread and green salad.” He awarded that restaurant five stars, two more stars than he gave to a Pizza Hut in Harare, Zimbabwe. In addition to restaurant reviews, Kinahan Sr. has gone on to the social media platform now known as X to express admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to The New Yorker.

Even with others in the clan on law enforcement’s radar, the main target has been Daniel Kinahan, the organization’s suspected leader. A former DEA agent told The New Yorker that “American law enforcement cared about only one Kinahan.” The agent added, “It’s all about Dan.”

Over time, Kinahan is alleged to have built a “Super Cartel” thought to control a third of Europe’s $20 billion-a-year cocaine trade, The New Yorker reported. The magazine noted that the Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah has been a money laundering outlet for the Kinahans.

“Hezbollah was really good at two things—transport logistics and money-laundering mechanisms,” DEA agent Jack Kelly told the magazine.

According to The New Yorker, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has compared the Kinahans to Mexico’s Los Zetas cartel, Japan’s yakuza, and Russia’s Thieves in Law.

‘A very different life’

Upon arriving in Ireland in early August, Kinahan was brought to a Dublin court under heavy security for a brief appearance. He then was driven in a convoy to Portlaoise Prison, with a police helicopter overhead, The Irish Sun reported.

“I have never seen anything like the security operation to bring Daniel Kinahan to court and then on to Portlaoise,” David McDonald, a retired prison officer, said.

McDonald told the newspaper Kinahan went “from a life of luxury in Dubai to a very different life in Portlaoise Prison.”

“He will have absolutely no control of his life when he’s in Portlaoise,” McDonald said. “If he wants a Mars bar from the tuck shop, he’ll have to put an order in.” The former prison guard said Kinahan will have access to a gym and education, “but that’s about it.”

“Every time he leaves his cell there will be at least three or four prison officers, so his every move is monitored,” McDonald said. “There are multiple cameras covering the prison outside his cell, and I think anyone would struggle to adapt to this way of life.”

Now locked up, Kinahan maintains he is a victim of a conspiracy to tarnish his reputation, the Associated Press reported. In a recent phone interview with Scottish podcaster James English, he denied being an organized crime boss and added that he hoped the upcoming trial in Dublin would help clear his name. The interview is posted on TikTok.

“I believe, in a way, I am a scapegoat,” Kinahan told the podcaster.

Larry Henry is a veteran print and broadcast journalist. He served as press secretary for Nevada Governor Bob Miller and was political editor at the Las Vegas Sun and managing editor at KFSM-TV, the CBS affiliate in Northwest Arkansas.