Net closing in on Dublin gang boss hiding out in Dubai

A man in drag and his accomplice in a flat cap began a bloody new chapter in Ireland’s most infamous gang feud when they walked arm-in-arm into a packed boxing weigh-in before opening fire.  

With three co-conspirators disguised as armed police waiting outside the Regency Hotel in Dublin, the handgun-wielding couple sparked mayhem as they searched for targets among the 250-strong crowd. 

One of the mobsters was wearing a dress and a wig with pink and purple highlights as he and the man in the cap began shooting before the ‘tactical team’ armed with AK-47s stormed into the foyer. 

The infamous attack on February 5, 2016, in full view of members of the media present, would claim the life of Kinahan cartel member David Byrne, who was shot six times with a high-velocity rifle.  

Two other men were injured before the gang of five made their escape in a Ford Transit van, leaving it burnt out on a nearby estate.

Demonstrating his evasive nature, Daniel Kinahan, the Hutch mob’s prime target, slipped out of the ‘Clash of the Titans’ unscathed. 

The gang war escalated to new heights as the Kinahan organised crime group sought retribution against their arch enemies in a vendetta which has claimed at least 18 lives, mostly Hutch family or associates.

Amid the feud, Daniel, the son of the empire’s founder Christy Kinahan, has maintained a high-rolling lifestyle with global financial trails.

Rise of the super cartel

From the starting point of low-level crime in their native Dublin, the father and son rose to the helm of an international crime empire that has been estimated to have a worth of €1bn (£835m). 

Currently holed up in Dubai, Daniel, 48, maintains his grip on the gang, whose activities have ranged from large-scale drug trafficking to murder to purported money laundering links to Hezbollah.  

Intelligence seen by Metro shows the family’s web across the world, linking to front businesses, lawyers and companies. 

At the heart of the network map put together by private investigators is Chisty, 69, who lives up to his ‘Dapper Don’ nickname by being a regular visitor at Dubai’s Michelin-starred restaurants.

The family has maintained its presence in the billionaires’ playground despite American law enforcement having put a $5 million bounty on Christy and his two sons, Christopher Jr and Daniel.

Daniel befriended Tyson Fury as the Kinahans ventured into boxing, with the fighter attending the gang boss’s extravagant wedding to Caoimhe Robinson in the Gulf city’s ‘seven-star’ Burj Al Arab hotel. 

Daniel, nicknamed ‘Chess’ for his strategic thinking, has been named as a key figure in a ‘super cartel’ and has a wealth estimated at £740 million by Ireland’s An Garda Siochána police service. 

Kingpins forced abroad

A lax approach to illicit money among the Dubai authorities is widely believed to be the reason why the Kinahans are able to maintain their lives in the oil-rich Gulf state.

As the 10-year anniversary of the infamous hotel shooting approaches, however, there are signs that the net is closing. 

John Collins, of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, a Geneva-headquartered organisation focused on law enforcement, told Metro that the Regency shooting and murder of Irish investigative journalist Veronica Guerin in 1996 were pivotal moments in the fight against mafia-style gangs.  

‘Since the 1990s and notably the murder of Irish investigative journalist Veronica Guerin, which caused widespread shock in Ireland, there has been a steady and persistent development of the capacity to eliminate organised crime,’ he said.

‘That doesn’t mean the illicit markets will disappear overnight, but there has been increasing pressure on organised crime, with a lot of main players having to move abroad.’ 

Extravagant Dubai lifestyle

Kinahan’s arch-enemy Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch was acquitted over his alleged role in the hotel shooting but four other men have been convicted for participating in the attack. 

‘The Regency shooting in 2016 was a blatant slap in the face to the Irish state, but the state responded pretty aggressively and has continued to do so,’ Collins said.

‘Ireland has had a very significant number of intelligence-led policing efforts against serious and organised crime, the Kinahans being one particular group that has been targeted. 

‘We’ve also seen a broad foreign policy push to ensure that they don’t have safe havens in other countries and the imposition of US sanctions.’ 

The Kinahans’ wedding showed the scale of their riches, with the couple sitting on gilded thrones in front of a congregation including some of the world’s most powerful crime bosses.  

But it also focused international authorities’ minds on the cartel, with the network’s associations being partially revealed by the spectacle.  

The Emiratis have also shown that they are now more willing to sign extradition treaties, including one with Ireland which took effect last year. 

Sean McGovern, an alleged Kinahan lieutenant who was wounded in the 2016 shooting, was subsequently arrested in his luxury Dubai apartment and flown back to Dublin where is charged with murder.

‘At Global Initiative we say that when criminals can be famous and operate openly you have got a very serious rule of law issue within your state,’ Collins said.

‘The Kinahan organised crime group is a significant organisation which is transnational in nature and operates almost like a corporation in some ways.

‘Their illicit, internationally-dispersed activities brought them onto the radar of the US government because of their links to Hezbollah, money laundering and their tax evasive stance. 

‘However, what you effectively see with the Kinahans is that after emerging in Dublin and then becoming transnational, they flew too close to the sun and the net has been consistently tightening.’

Collins believes that, despite the earlier picture of excess during the Kinahans’ time in Dubai, the reality may be that they are now finding ‘severe’ restraints on their movement.

There has certainly been an end to the publicity that in 2022 saw Daniel and Fury posing for the cameras in the city, the latter wearing a keffiyeh.  

‘While they have been seeking safe havens in places where there is less of a risk of extradition, their freedom of movement is severely limited and they are at tremendous risk of being captured,’ Collins said.

‘Organised crime will obviously carry on as the cartel is degraded, but that’s not a reason not to go after the current heads of the group.   

‘When a highly developed state decides to go after an actor, such as the Italian mafia in the US, the state is ultimately able to flood them by pulling together its resources.   

Kinahans under ‘strongest scrutiny’

‘This is a transnational issue but Ireland has put a lot of diplomatic effort in and American and European law enforcement are also ensuring the odds are not in the Kinahans’ favour.

‘One of the legacies of Veronica Guerin’s murder and the Regency shooting is that it is now fairly difficult to be a major organised crime figure in Ireland because the police and intelligence agencies are very capable.’ 

Professor Anna Sergi, a leading authority on mafia-type gangs, told Metro that the crime group’s notorious ‘brand’ is a help and a hindrance.

Professor Sergi, of the University of Bologna, said: ‘With the strongest scrutiny ever on the “usual suspects” of the group, and definitely on the name behind it all, Daniel, there is only one opportunity for them to survive – which is to change without changing too much. The brand name is currency and reputation but also exposure, so fragmentation of activities and leadership is the only viable way to survive.’ 

Pursuing the decision-makers

Detective Chief Superintendent Seamus Boland, the head of the Garda’s Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, confirmed last week that meetings are ongoing between the force and their counterparts in the UAE. 

Officers want to pursue ‘the decision-makers, the people who were controlling the violence’, he told Irish broadcaster RTÉ.

The Garda has compiled files alleging that Daniel directed the activities of a criminal organisation and was responsible for the 2016 murder of Eddie Hutch – the first man to be killed in retribution for the hotel shooting.  

It remains to be seen what, if any, charges the authorities can make stick on the crime boss, but the momentum is moving against him.  

Raising a young family, the Kinahans may find it difficult to slip into countries where they have ties, including Zimbabwe and Iran, but their international connections could provide the best exit route if they decide capture is imminent in the Middle Eastern bolthole

Daniel launched a PR offensive after the Regency shootings, including a YouTube track called ‘Major Plans’ by British rapper J Spades. 

The lyrics took aim at the police and the media, and claimed that the Kinahans had ‘gone legit’ while acknowledging their gangster past.  

But the major plans, including the foray into boxing, are now a distant memory as the Regency anniversary pulls into view. 

A lawyer for the Kinahans previously told the BBC that ‘rumours’ and ‘theories’ about them have not been tested in court. 

The representative also said that a ‘massive investigation’ by five countries ended with a dismissal of the main charges against them.  

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