Kinahan cartel founder Christy Kinahan snr is unlikely to face criminal charges unless new information emerges, The Irish Times has established.
The most significant organised crime figure to ever emerge from Ireland, the 69-year-old has effectively been ordered to leave Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has been his base for more than a decade, though he faces no criminal charges anywhere in the world.
A file sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions three years ago after a significant Garda investigation into the cartel’s leadership has been fully considered and no charges against Kinahan snr have been recommended.
Sources confirmed he is not caught up in the evidence being used to charge and prosecute other alleged Kinahan cartel leaders.
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Kinahan snr remains sanctioned by the United States, which has also offered a reward of up to $5 million for information that would lead to his arrest and conviction.
Investigations by An Garda Síochána and the UK’s National Crime Agency have wiped out the cartel’s operations on the ground in Ireland and Britain over the past decade.
Alleged cartel leader Daniel Kinahan was arrested in Dubai in April and extradited to Ireland last month. He is to stand trial in the non-jury Special Criminal Court accused of directing an organised crime group between 2015 and 2017.
Daniel Kinahan’s alleged right-hand man, Dubliner Seán McGovern, was arrested in Dubai in 2024 and later extradited to Ireland. He pleaded guilty to two charges of directing the activities of a criminal organisation relating to the Hutch-Kinahan gangland feud and was jailed for 24 years.
Another of Christy Kinahan’s sons, Christopher jnr, continues to live openly in Dubai but is still under investigation by the Garda.
However, intelligence strongly suggests Kinahan snr surrendered the day-to-day control of the cartel to his two sons long before the group became embroiled in the Kinahan-Hutch feud. As a result, while his sons and their associates have faced investigation for feud-related alleged offences, Kinahan snr has emerged unscathed.
One source said Kinahan snr had been “much cuter” than some of those around him and several sources said new information would be required if he was to ever face charges.
However, his UAE residency visa was cancelled last month and he must leave by September 29th. The specific reasons for the visa being cancelled, and why it has happened at this time, are unclear. The development first emerged in joint coverage by The Sunday Times and investigative agency Bellingcat.
Kinahan snr is married to a Dutch-Turkish woman and the couple have teenage children, all of whom are believed to have lived together in Dubai for years. He has made no real effort to hide from the authorities while in Dubai, aside from using multiple passports to frustrate efforts to monitor him internationally.
[ From Dublin’s Oliver Bond flats to Dubai: The life of Daniel KinahanOpens in new window ]
In April, 2022, Kinahan snr was one of seven men at the apex of the Kinahan cartel to face financial and travel sanctions by the office of foreign assets control, a section of the US department of the treasury. Daniel and Christopher jnr were also sanctioned. This meant the three Kinahans and four named associates, including McGovern, were locked out of the US banking system and could not travel on US airlines or enter the US. They were also banned from doing business with any American citizen or company.
Security sources said the fact Kinahan snr remained sanctioned, and is effectively a “most wanted” figure in the eyes of the Americans, means he may be denied entry to some countries when he leaves Dubai.
The Irish Times reported earlier this year that the three Kinahans had not left the UAE since the sanctions were imposed, for fear of being arrested in other countries they may travel to and over concerns they may not be allowed back into Dubai.
