The war in Iran not only altered the geopolitical balance in the Middle East, it has also left unexpected consequences.
One of them materialized in mid-April in Dubai, where authorities arrested Daniel Kinahan, an Irish citizen identified for years as a key figure in international organized crime.
In April 2022, the United States government imposed sanctions on him after identifying him, along with other members of his family, as one of the leaders of the so-called Kinahan cartel, a network linked to drug trafficking, weapons and murders.
Considered by the US Treasury Department and European law enforcement agencies as one of the most influential criminals in Europe, Kinahan also had ties to the world of sports through MTK Global, his now-defunct representation company, which worked with more than 100 boxers, including Tyson Fury and Carl Frampton.
The arrest was carried out by the authorities of the United Arab Emirates, in a context of increased surveillance in the Middle East, due to fear that transnational criminal networks will take advantage of the instability derived from the war in Iran.
Nicola Tallant, an investigative journalist specializing in organized crime, says the arrest represents a serious blow to the Kinahans and is very significant.
“The authorities have invested a lot of time and human resources to dismantle the Kinahan cartel and this is a great achievement,” he tells BBC Mundo.
“But it is a very large organization, with a lot of money, and I do not think that the elimination of a single person will be able to dismantle it,” he continues.
“My opinion is that there are people already prepared to take over the leadership of the cartel. They are not going to give up or disappear simply because Daniel was arrested.”
The Irish police said in a statement that the arrest represents an example of the importance and “need for international police cooperation to combat transnational organized crime.”
The operation came after Irish authorities sent a court file to the UAE detailing Kinahan’s alleged crimes and his role within an international network.
Based on that document, the Dubai Prosecutor’s Office issued an arrest warrant to begin legal procedures prior to his extradition.
Kinahan was arrested less than forty eight hours after the warrant was issued.
According to the Irish police, the process is part of the bilateral extradition agreement between Ireland and the United Arab Emirates, considered key for this type of joint operations.
The Kinahans
The story of the Kinahans and drug trafficking dates back to the 1980s, when Christopher Kinahan, Daniel’s father, was already well into the business.
In 1986, Christopher Kinahan was arrested for heroin trafficking and sentenced to six years in prison. He subsequently served shorter sentences in Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium.
But it is believed that he expanded his network of contacts, creating what became known in police circles as the Kinahan Organized Crime Group (KOCG).
By 2010, KOCG had focused its operations in Marbella, southern Spain. Brothers Daniel and Christopher Jr. were suspected of helping their father run the family cartel.
And by then Daniel Kinahan was already well known enough.
In 2012, in addition to Daniel, his father Christopher and 6 other members of the Kinahan family were sanctioned by the US Treasury Department.
Washington accuses the alleged Kinahan cartel of being behind illegal activities in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Spain and the United Arab Emirates.
Journalist Nicola Tallant, who has investigated the Kinahan family for years, explains that Daniel lived in Spain until 2016, where he founded the boxing promoter MGM and began to project an image of a legitimate businessman.
Since that year, the group has been involved in a violent dispute with rival gang Hutch.
“One of the most notable episodes was the attempted murder at the Regency Hotel in Dublin, which triggered a large police response in Ireland,” he notes.
In that attack, David Byrne, an associate of the Kinahans, was shot dead and two other people were injured. The dispute between the Hutchs and the Kinahans has left at least 18 dead to date.
Tallant adds that a previous attempt to dismantle the organization, “Operation Shovel” in 2010 in Spain, failed due to the slowness of the judicial system and the group’s strong defense.
However, following the Regency Hotel shooting in 2016, European police cooperation changed significantly, and the Netherlands and France began to share intelligence more effectively.
In Ireland, the authorities managed to dismantle much of the local structure, with some 70 members imprisoned in a few years for crimes such as murder and money laundering.
However, Kinahan’s pursuit became complicated when he moved to Dubai in 2016 with his brother. Their father already lived there.
In Dubai, Kinahan consolidated his position by entering business circles and becoming an influential figure in international boxing.
Meanwhile, international investigations continued to intensify
According to journalistic investigations and intelligence sources cited in the media, the Kinahan cartel entourage would have come to control a significant part of cocaine trafficking from South America to Europe.
The Treasury Department also reported it as a “killer organization.”
Nicola Tallant explains that drug trafficking in Europe evolved from traditional centers such as Amsterdam, which became the “drug supermarket” thanks to its logistical position and permissive attitude, and the Costa del Sol, marked by corruption, its proximity to Morocco and the presence of international criminal networks.
According to Tallant, in recent years Dubai has emerged as a new refuge for major organized crime figures, attracted by its lifestyle, its concentration of wealth and an environment that, he claims, has allowed the arrival of capital linked to illicit activities until international court orders intervene.
“Dubai revolves around money and hedonistic lifestyles, and wealth that is difficult to imagine, and much of that wealth comes from organized crime. Many groups feel welcome in that city, there is no doubt about it,” he says.
Geopolitical sensitivity due to Iran war
The climate of regional tension due to the war in Iran and the sensitivity towards activities linked to that country seem to have worked against Daniel Kinahan.
According to various sources, UAE authorities began to act more firmly when links between the alleged Daniel Kinahan cartel and networks associated with Iran came to light, especially in illicit activities such as oil trading, evading US sanctions on Iranian exports.
An investigation by the investigative journalism website Bellingcat, based in the Netherlands, indicates that people linked to the cartel’s environment participated in sanctioned crude oil transportation and marketing circuits.
Along the same lines, the British newspaper The Instances cited security assessments according to which the cartel maintained “links with Iranian intelligence, particularly in the illicit oil trade.”
According to the newspaper, this would have increased diplomatic pressure on the UAE and contributed to the Arab country’s authorities deciding to take action.
In this context, the geopolitical sensitivity around the war in Iran and the attacks that this country has been carrying out in the Gulf countries would have contributed to the Emirati authorities strengthening their cooperation with Ireland and acting against key figures of the group.
According to journalist Nicola Tallant, Kinahan’s arrest is framed in a broader context that includes the conflict in Iran and the cartel’s alleged links with actors such as Hezbollah.
Tallant points to reports that the group would have facilitated transportation and investments linked to drug trafficking to finance the activities of these organizations and reported this as a geopolitical background that has accompanied the investigation.
The case highlights how international conflicts can intensify pressure on criminal networks.
For the Irish government, the arrest represents a significant step forward in its fight against organized crime and an example of the growing importance of international security collaboration.
With additional information from journalist Darragh MacIntyre.
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