The twelve days that rocked the Kinahan Cartel to its knees

Daniel Kinahan, his father Christopher Senior and his brother Christopher Junior are likely to be either arrested or kicked out of the kingdom within days, according to sources.

Twelve days ago, An Garda Síochána publicly declared war on the Kinahan cartel.

In an unprecedented affront, the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (DOCB) held a press conference where it was revealed that gardaí had teamed up with the United States to try bring down one of the most powerful drugs gangs in the world: what they dubbed “The Kinahan Organised Crime Group (KOCG)”.

Despite previous efforts, it was the first major blow gardaí landed against boxing promoter and cartel leader Daniel Kinahan.

In the days that followed, the blows continued to rain down on the upper echelons of the cartel, holed up in Dubai in the UAE.

• Where are they going to go?

Everyone is asking this question.

Some people claim Daniel Kinahan will come back here to face trial before our courts, but he has previously claimed to the Irish Independent that he cannot receive a fair trial in Ireland.

However, Kinahan is not even charged with any offence here.

• So, where else could they go?

Informed sources say they could run to the neighbouring Gulf state.

However, other sources say states such as Kazakhstan and other central Asian countries – where the crime group has built up a major business network – could put them up. Essentially, countries where a European Arrest Warrant means nothing.

Other conspiracy theorists suggest they will run to Russia.

In a possibly bizarre pronouncement, a usually reliable underworld source said last night there “was word the Kinahans” were heading to war-torn Afghanistan.

Despite all this tittle-tattle, it is evident the US-imposed sanctions on three businesses and seven Kinahan gang members, including enforcer John Morrissey, who is based in Spain, has effectively destroyed them.

This means US banks, financial institutions, companies and other organisations cannot do business with them.

• Their massive organisation is finished as they had known it.

Weeks before last week’s big announcement, the gang had already started to move their assets from Dubai to neighbouring Oman after they got spooked when one of their main associates was extradited to Italy.

• They are not finished and will they ever be?

It was announced last week that the Kinahan cartel had joined the ranks of international crime gangs including the Italian Camorra, the Japanese Yakuza, and the Russian gang ‘Thieves in law’, in terms of hard sanctions from the US.

But as a former detective pointed out this week, these criminal organisations are still prominent and these organisations are still making millions of euro each week despite sanctions enforced by the US.

• Is this the end of the Kinahan cartel?

Unlikely, in truth, but the collateral damage is off the charts for any organisation linked to the mob.

MTK Global announced on Wednesday it was ceasing operations because others in the boxing world were refusing to deal with the company, which Daniel Kinahan founded in 2012.

MTK Global has repeatedly said it ended all association with Kinahan in 2017.

It was not one of the businesses sanctioned by the US Treasury Department last week.

“Since leading promoters have now informed us that they will be severing all ties with MTK and will no longer work with our fighters, we have taken the difficult decision to cease operations at the end of this month,” the company said in a statement.

MTK Global represented champion fighters such as Tyson Fury and Billy Joe Saunders. The company added that it had faced “unprecedented levels of unfair scrutiny and criticism” of its connections to Kinahan.

The shutdown came a day after the company’s chief executive Bob Yalen resigned, citing the “intense” pressure of the last few weeks.

Kinahan’s close friendship and business relationship with Fury is well documented.

In fact, Kinahan’s involvement with Fury was the beginning of his unravelling, well-placed sources say.

It kicked off in June last year, when Fury uploaded a video to his Instagram account in which he announced a two-fight deal between himself and unified world title holder Anthony Joshua.

“I’m just after getting off the phone with Daniel Kinahan,” he told his millions of followers.

“He’s just informed me that the biggest fight in British boxing history has just been agreed.”

Fury also gave a “big shout out to Dan”, who he said “literally got this done”.

This endorsement by one of the world’s most high-profile boxing figures sent shockwaves through Ireland, where the media frequently highlights the murderous activities of the Kinahan cartel.

Within a couple of weeks of Fury’s glowing praise, the boxer quietly dropped Daniel as his negotiator for the fight after a political and media outcry.

Within weeks of the furore, the 44-year-old Dubliner temporarily fled his palatial compound in Dubai, which he had called home for almost four years, for the far less glamorous surroundings of Kazakhstan in Central Asia, sources say.

On Wednesday, in light of the US sanctions, Fury distanced himself further from his former friend Kinahan, declaring: “[His criminality] is none of my business, and I don’t get involved in other people’s business.”

But while the abandonment of his friends in the boxing world must sting, Daniel Kinahan had far bigger problems by yesterday.

He was dealt a further massive blow with the freezing of his assets by the United Arab Emirates.

“If Daniel had kept his head down and hadn’t tried to wash his money through boxing, he might not be in this situation right now,” a source said. “But he was floored by his own ego. He’s running out of places to hide.”