The former Dublin home of Daniel Kinahan has been sold for €931,000 after it was put up for auction by the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab).
A minimum selling price of €550,000 was put in place, about a quarter of its €2 million sale figure two decades ago.
The online bidding for the four-bedroom, three-bathroom, two reception-room gated property at No 10 Coldwater Lakes in Saggart, Co Dublin, began at noon, and finished almost two hours later after 168 bids by five potential buyers.
Details of the property were released a month ago by estate agent BRG Gibson Auctions in advance of the public auction on Thursday.
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It was described as an “impressive” 316 sq m (3,410 sq ft) house.
“The home’s entrance is marked by a grand staircase with rich wood banisters and grey carpeting,” the sellers said, adding that it is accessed by two separate electronic gates. It is “finished to a high standard” but “will require some repairs internally and externally”.
[ The Kinahan cartel and the mystery of 10 Coldwater LakesOpens in new window ]
The auctioneers describe the property as including a “spacious garage which has been converted, with mirrored walls and a sprung floor, it is ideal for use as a home gym, dance studio, or recreational space”.
When bidding began at noon on Thursday, the first offer was for the minimum €550,000 followed by an increased €1,000 offer a minute later from a second bidder.
This was in turn followed by a succession of increased bids of €1,000 between five bidders for the next 50 minutes before the bid increased by €3,000.
The fourth registered bidder pulled out at €801,000 an hour and 10 minutes into the auction, while the fifth bidder withdrew at €845,000 some 10 minutes later.
Bidder number two withdrew from the auction after just over an hour with an offer of €747,000.
After that bidders one and three continued with 21 more offers each until bidder one finished at €930,000 and bidder three bought the house for an offer of €1,000 more.
The former Kinahan home has been sold for a higher price than similar properties recently fetched. In November, a house in the same estate sold for €841,000, according to the Property Price Register, which records the sale and price of all residential properties sold in Ireland.
A house three doors up from the Kinahan property sold for €725,000 in August, while in February last year a property on the estate went for €775,000.
Before that the most recent sale was in May 2016 when a Coldwater Lakes home sold for €915,000 while in April the year before a house on the estate went for €525,000.
The seizure of No 10 Coldwater Lakes by Cab is one of the State’s most significant financial victories against the crime figure.
Daniel Kinahan, along with his brother Christopher Jnr, is alleged to run a major international drug trafficking operation which is responsible for a large proportion of the cocaine smuggled into Europe.
The criminal gang was founded in Dublin by their father Christopher Kinahan snr. All three men live in Dubai.
The home was seized by Cab in 2022 following an order by the High Court that it represented the proceeds of crime.
The order was granted against Daniel Kinahan and Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh, both believed by Cab to play key roles in the Kinahan/Kavanagh organised crime group (OCG).
Cab told the court it found evidence that Daniel Kinahan lived there, including a passport and airport baggage sticker in his name.
Cab claimed businessman Jimmy Mansfield jnr gave the property, plus various cash payments, to the Kinahan/Kavanagh group, following failure to make property investments worth about €4.5 million cash the gang gave him in two suitcases on the day after Good Friday in 2009.
The bureau said it was satisfied No 10 was sold for €2 million in 2006 to a company of the group founded by deceased businessman James Mansfield. In about 2014 it passed into the control of the Kinahan gang and Thomas Kavanagh.
Cab’s proceedings were also against brothers Jimmy Mansfield jnr and PJ Mansfield but, after they waived any claim to the property and cash, the proceedings continued against Daniel Kinahan and Kavanagh, who is currently serving a lengthy sentence in the UK for drug, weapons and money laundering charges.
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