Irish drug kingpin living in Dubai attracts new attention

Irish drug kingpin Daniel Kinahan is back in the spotlight with a magazine story noting that he is living freely in Dubai despite being the suspected head of a major organized crime family.

The 11-page story in the October 27 issue of The New Yorker, written by British reporter Ed Caesar, questions why the 48-year-old Kinahan, reputed leader of the Super Cartel from Dublin, is living freely in the United Arab Emirates, even with a multimillion-dollar U.S. bounty on his head for narcotics trafficking and money laundering. The magazine noted that one money laundering outlet connected to the Kinahan Organized Crime Group has been Hezbollah, “the Iran-backed Lebanese militia” also engaged in “the cocaine trade.”

The Kinahan family and their associates are among criminal suspects who have made Dubai a global base of operations. To some in the underworld, Dubai is considered a hideout affording a luxurious lifestyle — flashy cars, lavish apartments and, for Daniel Kinahan, a hair transplant in Dubai’s “beauty sector.” The Kinahans themselves are thought to be worth $1 billion.

Although the UAE city on the Persian Gulf has become a haven for some criminal suspects, authorities have taken others into custody there. Recently, U.S. marshals arrested former NFL player Antonio Brown in Dubai on an attempted murder charge stemming from a shooting incident in Miami. Brown was extradited to the United States and, according to the Associated Press, released from a Miami jail after posting a $25,000 bond while awaiting trial.

Before being arrested in Dubai, Brown had been posting videos “kind of like laughing at the city of Miami,” said Miami Police Officer Michael Vega, according to WSVN-TV in Miami. “Maybe he thought that we couldn’t extradite from there,” Vega said.

Meanwhile, others on the run, including Daniel Kinahan, have been seen in Dubai but have not been apprehended, much less extradited to Ireland or anywhere else to face justice. A source told Caesar, the magazine writer, that Daniel Kinahan was recently spotted at a mall in Dubai.

Maintaining a low profile does not seem to be a priority for the Kinahans. The family patriarch, Christy Kinahan Sr., 68, has used an alias on social media sites to post restaurant reviews and travel recommendations. On the social media platform now known as X, Christy Sr. expressed admiration for Russian leader Vladimir Putin. There is some speculation the Kinahans might next seek refuge in Russia or Iran.

The Super Cartel

During the 1990s, the Kinahan Organized Crime Group got its start in Dublin under Christy Sr.’s leadership, flooding the city with narcotics. Over time, with rival feuds exploding into deadly open warfare and pressure from Irish authorities, the group relocated to places such as Amsterdam, Spain and Dubai, joining with international narcotics traffickers, according to published reports.

Throughout the years, Kinahan sightings in Dublin became infrequent but sometimes were explosive. One of those occurred in February 2016 when armed members of a rival gang barged into a Dublin hotel, the Regency, where Daniel Kinahan, who also has been a boxing promoter, was present for a weigh-in before an upcoming bout. Kinahan escaped through a window at the hotel, now called the Bonnington, but a lieutenant, David Byrne, was shot to death. This intensified the rivalry between the Kinahans and the local Hutch clan, leading to revenge killings.

The violence and illicit operations associated with the Kinahans have brought them a level of notoriety reserved for the world’s most notorious criminal organizations. The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has compared the Kinahans to Mexico’s Los Zetas, Japan’s yakuza and Russia’s Thieves in Law, according to The New Yorker. Daniel Kinahan’s contribution to that reputation has been in building a network that became the Super Cartel. This global cartel is thought by Europol to control a third of Europe’s cocaine trade, which, according to the magazine, is worth as much as $20 billion a year.

These days, even though Christy Sr. remains a fugitive, the real target is the eldest of his two sons, Daniel, the suspected current leader of the transnational organized crime family — and now with a price on his head. The U.S. ambassador to Ireland has announced that a $5 million reward is available for tips leading to the arrest of Daniel Kinahan, his brother, Christy Kinahan Jr., or their father, Christy Sr.

“But, according to a former DEA agent, American law enforcement cared about only one Kinahan,” The New Yorker reported. “As the agent put it, ‘It’s all about Dan.’”

Whether Daniel Kinahan will be apprehended in the UAE or expelled from there is an open question. According to the magazine, he might feel safe in Dubai as long as there are no formal charges against him.

Currently, Irish authorities are working on criminal charges to offer up to get Daniel Kinahan back to Ireland in chains. Stephen Breen, crime editor of the Irish Sun, told The Mob Museum that authorities in the Irish capital are analyzing hundreds of pages of investigative files, hoping to charge Daniel Kinahan with “a number of offenses,” including those related to organized crime and conspiracy to murder.

“That process is complex and is still ongoing,” Breen said in an email. “There is no time frame on it.”

In addition to his role at the newspaper, Breen is an author whose most recent true crime book, Kinahan Assassins, was co-written with Irish Sun colleague John Hand.

According to Caesar, the New Yorker reporter, the United States appears less focused now on collaring Daniel Kinahan than in smashing cartels closer to home.

“The Trump administration has different drug-interdiction priorities, notably fentanyl and Latin American cartels,” Caesar wrote. “A DEA source told me that the agency currently has little interest in pursuing people like the Kinahans.” However, the $5 million U.S. bounty remains in place for anyone turning him in.

Kinahans attract attention

Extracting a criminal suspect from Dubai is not impossible, as was seen with the ex-NFL player, Antonio Brown. However, a former FBI agent told The New Yorker the threshold for removal is high. “Violent crime, in your country or in theirs, anything that’s a threat to tourism, they’ll get rid of you,” the former FBI agent said.

The 2024 arrest of Kinahan associate Sean McGovern at his house in Dubai is another example showing that apprehensions do occur. When McGovern was taken into custody in the UAE, he was wanted in Ireland on suspicion of directing the activities of a criminal organization and killing a rival in Dublin during the Kinahan-Hutch feud.

Caesar wrote that McGovern “did not believe that he was in danger” in Dubai, but he was scooped up last May anyway and is parked in an Irish prison while awaiting a trial likely to begin in 2026.

With people like McGovern in prison, the Kinahan group is not what it once was in Dublin, said Breen, The Irish Sun crime editor.

“This is due to the investigations of the Irish police that has seen nine of their members convicted of murder, high-ranking figures convicted of directing the activities of the organized crime group and dozens of others also jailed for drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons possession,” the journalist said. “Despite this, the group still has key representatives in Ireland who are linked to drug trafficking. Only this time they are working with other transnational groups.”

That’s not to say the public is no longer interested in knowing the latest on the Kinahans. Newspaper stories and podcasts about the crime family pop up all the time. The Irish Sun’s podcast series The Kinahans, released in 2023, is among others in that category.

“The Kinahan name continues to capture the public’s attention in Ireland, especially when many of their key associates are brought before the courts, Breen said. “The public often asks the question around Daniel Kinahan’s possible incarceration, but they have seen the convictions of many key figures both in Ireland and the U.K. The interest has maintained, especially since the extradition from Dubai of Kinahan’s right-hand man, Sean McGovern.”

Interest in the Kinahans seems to extend to the family’s next generation as well.

According to The New Yorker, Daniel Kinahan is believed to have at least six children by three mothers. Two of his sons, Sean and Cian, are in their 20s and share some of their father’s interests. Those interests apparently include heavyweight boxer Tyson Fury, known to have been affiliated with their father.

“When Tyson Fury fought Oleksandr Usyk in Riyadh, in May 2024, I was sitting close to the ring,” Caesar wrote. “A few rows away from me was a young man wearing a black T-shirt and a bright smile: Cian Kinahan.” 

To observers of the global crime scene, it is no surprise that people still talk about the Kinahan family and wonder what they’re up to.

“So long as the Kinahan group remains active,” Breen said, “there will always be interest in the name.”

Larry Henry is a veteran print and broadcast journalist. He served as press secretary for Nevada Governor Bob Miller and was political editor at the Las Vegas Sun and managing editor at KFSM-TV, the CBS affiliate in Northwest Arkansas. Today, he is a senior reporter for Gambling.com.