In pursuit of the Kinahans – from Dublin’s Oliver Bond flats to Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah

There are many signs the neighbourhood where Daniel Kinahan has lived in Dubai is only for the monied. The size of the palatial properties on Palm Jumeirah, coupled with the security checkpoints on entry into this particular enclave, leave no doubt about its exclusivity.

This is a long way from Oliver Bond flats in the Liberties area of Dublin’s south inner city, where Kinahan grew up. Residents there are overrun daily by street drug dealing; the last mile of the cartel’s distribution network. It is on those Dublin streets, and others like them throughout Europe, that Kinahan-supplied drugs change hands for the money that has built their fortune to more than €1 billion.

They are now a key component of the European super-cartel leadership, sourcing and directing shipments of cocaine – by the tonne – from South and central America into Europe. They have become so significant in a global context they have prompted recent changes to Irish foreign policy.

In their base in Dubai, the Palm Jumeirah is a man-made archipelago of artificial islands, in the shape of a palm, off Dubai in the Gulf. The security guards posted there are many but they lack curiosity. Although put in place to keep unwanted visitors out of the most private of streets, they wave through taxis once the driver gives a house number their passenger is going to.

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The guards record the number in their notebooks but make no other effort to establish the purpose of the visit. When they have created their record, they are satisfied. It’s job done, for now anyway.

Once on the street, calls to the property where the US authorities say Kinahan – married with children – has lived are unanswered. Most residents either simply don’t answer questions posed by The Irish Times or are reluctant to speak when they learn their caller is looking to find an Irish family who is said to have lived there at some point.

Large BMW and Mercedes SUVs fill the parking bays. The five-bedroom houses on the street, selling for the equivalent of more than €5 million, back on to a large beach. Many also have swimming pools to the rear.

[ Newly leaked documents reveal extent of Kinahan group’s Dubai property network ]

One man says he has lived there for two years and he insists no Irish family has lived on the street in that time. A longer-term resident walks away, waving his hand and exclaiming “no, no, no” when shown a photograph of Kinahan. It is unclear if his reaction is so strong because he does, or does not, recognise the bearded Irishman.

When one lingers too long on the road, which is deserted most of the time – apart from the gardeners and street cleaners maintaining the pristine appearance – the security guards arrive. Their curiosity is eventually aroused by a caller engaged in the unusual practice of knocking door-to-door on millionaire’s row in the afternoon Dubai heat. The instruction is to move on or the police will be called.

Some of the locals, too many to discount, insist a Russian family lives at the Kinahan-linked property now; Russian is the predominant nationality of residents in this neighbourhood, it seems. The fact that Kinahan has moved around in Dubai several times in recent years is confirmed by Garda contacts.

The address visited by The Irish Times last week was contained in the documents released by the US department of treasury and its office of foreign assets control when it sanctioned Kinahan in April 2022. He was one of seven Kinahan cartel leaders and other key figures to face financial and travel sanctions, along with his father Christopher snr and brother Christopher jnr.

Over the last two years, media speculation would have it believed that the Kinahans are planning to flee – to Pakistan, Afghanistan – or that they have already left for Iran. However, they are definitely still in Dubai. “We know from our contacts here, this is where they are,” Garda Commissioner Drew Harris told The Irish Times while attending an international policing summit in Dubai this week.

The theory is the three Kinahans have been making alternative arrangements, at least trying to, as US law enforcement is offering $5 million (€4.6 million) for information that would lead to their arrest, while locking them out of US banking and barring them from doing business with any US citizens or companies.

At the same time, the Irish Government and the Garda are trying to foster a relationship with the Dubai authorities that would result in the Kinahans being charged with serious crimes and put on trial, perhaps in Ireland after extradition.

Harris’s visit here is his second trip to Dubai, after first visiting here last September when he met his senior counterparts in Dubai Police. Harris addressed the World Police Summit on Thursday and, in his own words, “embarrassingly” told delegates about the rise of the Kinahan cartel, from a small crime gang in 1980s Dublin to a major international player. He also met Lieut Gen Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, commander in chief of Dubai Police.

Speaking to The Irish Times, Harris was adamant his trip to Dubai was not only about the Kinahans. Instead, Irish law enforcement needed to develop much closer ties with the Emirati authorities. Dubai had become such a significant trading and financial region in global terms that it was also significant on the criminal justice landscape, making close co-operation essential for the years ahead.

Harris said the appointment of a Garda liaison officer to the United Arab Emirates was part of a strategy by the Garda to take its place in international law enforcement. Although the Garda had always been very active in Europe, including through Europol and Interpol, liaison officers had now been appointed to Washington, Bogotá and UAE, with the next due to be appointed to Bangkok in the Far East. That significant new direction in Irish foreign policy, in a criminal justice sense, has not happened by accident.

“The Kinahans were probably the principal motivation of it and now the more we are getting involved, the more we are seeing the benefits,” Harris said.

“We want to be seen as a policing organisation which is confident, capable, motivated; good at what we do and bringing capability to a partnership,” the commissioner said of the expansion of the Garda network, mirroring the global reach of the Kinahan crime cartel.While the Kinahans were still at liberty in Dubai, the authorities there were willing to aid the Irish and international investigation into the cartel, he said.

Harris noted though Daniel Kinahan had become a major player, on a global scale, in promoting professional boxers, including world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, that public role had been cancelled by the US sanctions as US-linked entities in international boxing stepped away from him.

Eric Montalvo, a former US marine turned lawyer, is another person who has reflected a lot on the Kinahans, their growth and how they have done business, particularly Daniel Kinahan and his efforts in pro boxing.

Montalvo is currently suing Kinahan – and the former boxing firm he was linked to, MTK – for up to $20 million (€18 million) on behalf of his client, boxing promoter Moses Heredia. At the centre of the claim, denied by MTK, is the allegation boxer JoJo Diaz was poached from Heredia by enticing him away with money that came from the cartel.

Montalvo told The Irish Times when Kinahan first settled in Dubai – after the attempt by the rival Hutch gang to murder him in the Regency Hotel, Dublin, in 2016 – he enjoyed something of a honeymoon period.

“There were red flags but he was able to operate on the basis: ‘It wasn’t me; I don’t know what they’re talking about,’” he says of the period when Kinahan was very quickly emerging as a global figure in the promotion of pro boxing, while allegations of drug trafficking swirled around him in Ireland.

[ Why Daniel Kinahan can’t resist the lure of boxing’s bright lights ]

However, he believed professional sport was a vehicle for him to move into because sums of money could be formulated for deals based on subjective decisions around an athlete’s future potential. That effectively meant any sum of money could be moved around in the guise of investment in a boxer or fight.

“He had success and it was impossible for him not to be noticed doing what he was doing: promoting box,” said Montlavo. He added that while the Irishman should have kept a low profile in Dubai because of his drug dealing, he instead leaned in to the brash form of publicity that comes with boxing.

Montlavo felt it was hard to understand why another person was not used as the public face of Kinahan’s efforts to become a legitimate player in world boxing.

At the same time, Kinahan had to be seen as an aggressive “character” if he wanted to go up against established global boxing promotions companies run by “fighting people”.

Linking himself so publicly to Fury, for example, drew significant international attention on Kinahan, but also secured for him instant credibility in pro boxing.

“[Boxing] is not a weak sector and you have to be strong and aggressive. And if you’re legitimate, then the way he did – it would be brilliant,” said Montlavo. “But if you’re a narco-terrorist, it’s not so brilliant.”

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