“People might think they’re untouchable, but we don’t forget about them and we’re relentless”
Kelly said the ongoing investigation into the Kinahan cartel, which was founded by Christy Kinahan Snr and is now led by his sons Daniel and Christopher Jnr, was “complex”.
Law enforcement agencies in several jurisdictions are pursuing the cartel, which is based in Dubai, including American authorities who are offering rewards of up to $5 million for information that would lead to their arrest and conviction.
They are also under investigation by the gardai as well as British and Spanish authorities.
“We’re going to be relentless about it,” Kelly told The Irish Times. “And you see people here being prosecuted for homicides that happened decades ago, we’re not going to forget about anything.
“People might think they’re untouchable, but we don’t forget about them and we’re relentless,” Kelly added, referring to what has been described by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris as a “long march” to bring the Kinahans to justice.
“These people may have the trappings of wealth, but they don’t have any peace because they don’t know when [the authorities) are going to put their hands on them. For most of them, if you look back, it all comes to an end at some stage.”
Last year, Kelly, as head of organised and serious crime, vowed that the “substantially degraded” Kinahan crime cartel will be subjected to continued investigation until it is completely destroyed.
In August, Kelly said the Dublin crime gang was no longer the dominant force it once was, after the leaders “brought a huge amount of this attention on themselves”.
He said recent investigations had resulted in a seismic change in the level of co-operation between various agencies in other countries and Ireland.
Assistant Commissioner Kelly was referring to successive operations and investigations by Irish, British and Spanish authorities and the massive €15m bounty put on the heads of the three cartel leaders by American agencies in April 2022.
This has been greatly boosted by the expansion of garda liaison officers to Colombia and Dubai while Asia is next on the cards.
Assistant Commissioner Justin Kelly
“It’s definitely strengthened our international partnerships, we have relationships that we never had before,” he told the Irish Examiner at the time. “We can now pick up the phone to them anytime day or night. A decade ago that would nearly be unthinkable.”
He added that while there are “still elements” of the cartel structure in Ireland, as there is in Dubai, and that it would be naive to think “they’re out of business”, he is “confident that people at the top of that group will see justice”.
In April that year, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris revealed how gardai had made “significant advances” in their efforts to smash the Kinahans
Speaking at the 45th annual conference for the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors in Galway, the Garda Commissioner said: “The whole purpose of this is to bring the leaders of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group to justice.
“Significant advances have been made, particularly in Europe but also then with our US federal law enforcement partners.
“And so there is action in this and it keeps on moving forward.
“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 between many nations directed towards what is a transnational crime group.
“Work carries on – we always knew this would be a difficult target but much diminished from what it was a year ago.”
Exactly a year before saw the staging of a game-changing press conference in Dublin City Hall where senior members of the gardai as well as American government representatives announced a series of sanctions against the international crime gang.
At the conference it was revealed how United States government had imposed sanctions on seven key members of the Kinahan organised crime group following a major international policing operation.
Christopher Snr and his two sons, Daniel and Christopher Jnr, were all placed on an Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list, a list of the US Treasury Department.
US Ambassador to Ireland Claire Cronin told the media briefing in Dublin’s City Hall that there was a $5 million reward for key information leading to the Kinahan gang being dismantled.
She said the crime gang are accused of a wide range of heinous crimes around that world and that countering transnational criminal gangs is an “urgent priority” for US President Joe Biden and the US government.
Speaking at the conference, Garda Commissioner Harris said the Kinahan crime gang were responsible for “so much destruction and death” both here and abroad.
He said that while their leadership is based in countries with no extradition treaties with Ireland, he warned them they can “run but can’t hide from justice forever”.
At the time the garda chief added that they would be running out of money, friends, and influence.
The Commissioner also said that sports personalities and businesses should consider their involvement with the Kinahan gang.
Mr Harris told the briefing that people who deal with those sanctioned are involving themselves with a criminal network.
He said they should look at their own businesses and relationships with their fans and consider if this is something they want to be involved with.
The Kinahan cartel was founded by Christy Kinahan Snr (right) and is now led by his sons Daniel and Christopher Jnr
“In terms of some individuals, prominent sporting individuals who are in some way connected with this grouping, I would say look at your sport, your fans, and think of your own reputation because this is a very serious announcement today after a large amount of work.”
We have been documenting how the Kinahans’ once-booming drug empire is now crumbling as pressure mounts on all sides and the net closes in on the Dublin mob boss.
In April of this year, we revealed how a network of front companies set up by Daniel and his brother Christopher Jnr to launder their drug money had been shut down by authorities in the United Arab Emirates.
Two years after the US imposed sanctions on the cartel, a total of five of the Kinahans’ Emirates-based companies have had their licences cancelled.
We also previously reported on how Daniel was facing a bill of nearly $10m if a US court grants judgement against him in a case by a fight promoter who claims boxer Joseph Diaz was illegally poached using Kinahan’s drugs money.
Meanwhile, back home, gardaí have recommended Daniel be charged over the murder of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch’s brother, Eddie, eight years ago as the mobster remains trapped in his Dubai bolthole.
It also emerged how former allies of the Kinahans have been ratting out their fellow cartel leaders having been brought to face justice in Europe.
One of them, Raffaele Imperiale, has started to spill the beans on his gangster pals after he was extradited from Dubai to his native Italy in March 2022.
The notorious mob boss, known as the ‘King of the Narcos’, has turned ‘pentito’ (supergrass).
He has now become State witness against the Camorra, the drug mafia he was a high-ranking member of for over two decades.
Imperiale was one of a number of European criminals who agreed to work together to import cocaine from their base in Dubai.
It is alleged that Imperiale alongside Kinahan, Richard “El Rico” Riquelme Vega, Taghi and another imprisoned Dutch drug lord Naoufal “Belly” Fassih were part of the cartel which dominated Europe’s drug trade.
The group was observed having meetings in the Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai in 2017 and attended Daniel Kinahan’s wedding there.
However, new leaked memos, published in Dutch media, show how Imperiale has also made statements to Dutch police about international traffickers.
The documents show how the Italian gangster gave a detailed statement about his involvement with another Kinahan cartel partner, the Dutch-Chilean criminal, Richard “El Rico” Riquelme Vega.
‘El Rico’, whose nickname means ‘The Rich One’, was sentenced in 2021 to eleven years in prison for leading a criminal organisation that carried out assassinations and engaged in money laundering.
He was later acquitted of drug trafficking charges but he is said to have ties with Colombian drug cartels, having spent a lot of time in Chile, and provided the Italian with a large shipment of drugs.
