Dubai police in Dublin for talks with Garda on Kinahan cartel

A delegation of police officers from Dubai has met Garda Commissioner Drew Harris in Dublin to discuss future cooperation, including investigating the leadership of the Kinahan cartel, who are based mainly in Dubai.

The Dubai delegation were also meeting members of the Garda’s Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, which has spearheaded many of the investigations in Kinahan cartel members and their associates in the Republic.

The meetings in Dublin follow on from a visit to Dubai by Mr Harris and Assistant Commissioner Justin Kelly last month, when they met with His Excellency Lt General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, commander in chief of Dubai Police.

The authorities in Dubai have been slow to cooperate with the Garda and other European police forces, and have proven reluctant to extradite wanted gangland figures from Europe. However, relations between the Dubai authorities and the Garda and EU have been improving of late.

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Garda Headquarters said on Tuesday the meetings in Dublin were taking place on foot of an invitation issued by Mr Harris during his visit last month. It added the two police forces were now liaising “on ongoing work to tackle transnational organised crime”.

“The Dubai Police has already provided us with great assistance with our ongoing investigations into transnational organised crime and the support from this delegation will further advance that co-operation,” Mr Harris said.

“This initiative is another demonstration of the value of the expansion of the Garda international network of liaison officers and visits made by myself and other senior officers to the US, Colombia, Dubai, Asia and across Europe in recent years.

“These organised crime gangs cause misery not only in the countries they originate from, but across the globe. It is only through international co-operation among law enforcement that these gangs will be disrupted and dismantled.

“I want to thank the Departments of Justice and Foreign Affairs for their support for the expansion of the Garda international liaison network, which includes offices in the US, Colombia, Dubai, UK and Europe, with an additional office in Thailand to open shortly.”

Mr Harris’s visit to Dubai last month was arranged by officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Irish diplomatic personnel in the Middle East and was many months in the planning. It followed a series of covert briefings about the Kinahans the Garda has given to the Dubai police since early last year.

Those briefings began just before the US authorities, at a press conference in Dublin in April 2022, imposed financial and travel sanctions on three Kinahans and four of their close associates and offered rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to their conviction.

The Irish Times revealed in August a Garda inquiry into the cartel’s leadership has been concluded and the file sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. However, neither the Republic nor the European Union has any extradition arrangements with the UAE.

That means if charges were approved in the Republic against any of the Kinahans, the Irish and UAE authorities would need to reach agreement on a once-off basis facilitating their extradition to the Republic to face trial.

Garda officers are now increasingly hopeful the Dubai authorities would be more likely to agree to an extradition given they agreed to meet Mr Harris and Mr Kelly and have now come to Dublin.