Kinahan crime gang’s global finances still intact despite sanctions

The leadership of the Kinahan cartel retains its wealth, logistics operation and drugs supply despite the international sanctions imposed on it, senior security sources have said.

Garda members and others familiar with the workings of the cartel say the sanctions – including bank accounts being frozen – by the American authorities and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government are unlikely to have impacted on the cartel's core wealth.

Instead, its money and other assets are hidden away in a web of accounts and businesses based in other jurisdictions with tax haven status and which operate iron-clad secrecy around their banking systems.

Last month, US law enforcement announced cartel founder Christy Kinahan snr and his sons, Daniel and Christopher jnr, and four of their associates had been placed on a sanctions list. The men cannot hold any assets or have business dealings in the US and anyone based in the US cannot deal with them. Rewards of up to $5 million have also been offered by the Americans for information that would lead to the conviction of any of the three Kinahans or for significant information that could degrade the cartel.

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The UAE followed with similar sanctions. That development was significant as the Kinahans and many of their associates live in Dubai and have businesses there. However, those businesses are regarded as fronts established by the Kinahans to present themselves as legitimate businessmen rather than holding their core wealth.

A number of sources said it was unlikely the true extent of the cartel’s wealth, and where all of the assets are based, will ever be established. However, they agreed while the recent sanctions were important, they had not derailed the capacity of the Kinahans’ drugs trafficking business.

Publicity

“They have the finances and the contacts, globally, to keep going,” said one source, though he believed the sheer level of publicity around the cartel in recent weeks was a major handicap.

Another said while the cartel had been named in the Irish courts and was linked to drug trafficking and murders during evidence in court cases, the intervention of the Americans was on “another level”.

"We've seen it with Daniel Kinahan now and how the first reactions have played out in the boxing world; people are saying they are stepping away from him and the people closest to him are suffering," the source said

He cited the announcement of MTK Global, which Daniel Kinahan founded but says he sold in 2017, that it was discontinuing as a direct result of the American involvement in the case. The source added the negative publicity around the cartel in Ireland was much easier for the boxing world to dismiss than the same information being stated by American law enforcement.

However, he still believed the Kinahan cartel had the resources to continue drugs trafficking, though their ability to launder money was now much higher risk.

“A lot of the people in this [drug dealing] world are always under investigation and there can be a lot publicity around them,” he said. “So they are used to it and they don’t just fold up and walk off the pitch. But [the Kinahans] won’t be able to move money around as easily, that’s probably the biggest change.”