Daniel Kinahan vows to fight Irish organized crime charge

MANCHESTER, England (CN) — Daniel Kinahan will contest an Irish charge of directing a criminal organization, his lawyer said Monday, as a three-judge court set Dec. 21 for his next appearance and a deadline for prosecutors to prepare their evidence.

The case has attracted international attention because of Kinahan’s reported links to a major organized crime network accused by U.S. authorities of trafficking drugs across Europe and laundering criminal proceeds.

Kinahan, 49, appeared in person before Ireland’s Special Criminal Court in Dublin, where he faces a single charge of directing a criminal organization between Oct. 18, 2015, and April 6, 2017.

He did not speak during the brief hearing.

He appeared by video link from prison on Oct. 5when the court adjourned proceedings to allow his lawyer to attend.

His lawyer, Darragh Mackin of Belfast-based Phoenix Law, formally entered the case on Kinahan’s behalf on Monday and told the court he would apply for bail through Ireland’s High Court, a separate court that handles such formalities.

Prosecutors said preparing the evidence against Kinahan would take several weeks.

The statement of facts supporting his extradition runs to 189 pages, prosecutor Dominic McGinn told the court.

Judge Caroline Biggs remanded Kinahan in custody until Dec. 21, when he is due to receive the prosecution’s book of evidence — the documents setting out the case against him.

Mackin said the defense wanted the court’s timetable to account for an expert examination of digital evidence and disclosure of information relating to investigations in Spain and Dubai.

He said Kinahan had been acquitted in both matters.

Outside court, the lawyer said the defense hoped to proceed to trial in early 2027.

Kinahan was wearing a gray suit, black shirt and glasses during Monday’s hearing.

A large police presence, including officers from the Armed Support Unit, accompanied a convoy arriving outside the courthouse shortly before proceedings began.

Kinahan’s international profile

In April 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the Kinahan Organized Crime Group and identified Kinahan, his father, Christopher Kinahan Sr., and his brother, Christopher Kinahan Jr., as key members.

The U.S. State Department also offered rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of each of the three men for transnational organized crime.

U.S. authorities said the group trafficked narcotics, including cocaine, into Europe and used Dubai as a hub for criminal activity.

The sanctions came amid a long-running feud with a rival gang that the State Department linked to 18 deaths.

British investigators have also targeted the network.

The National Crime Agency, which investigates serious and organized crime across the U.K., has linked the group to drug trafficking, firearms and money laundering.

In 2022, Thomas Kavanagh, whom the agency described as the head of the group’s U.K. operations, was sentenced to 21 years in prison.

Two other men, Gary Vickery and Daniel Canning, received sentences of 20 years and 19 years, following convictions involving drug imports and money laundering.

The investigation into Kinahan follows a period of about a decade he spent living in Dubai with his wife and five children.

Irish authorities arrested him in the United Arab Emirates in April before extraditing him to Ireland in August.

He first appeared before the Special Criminal Court on Aug. 9, when he was charged and remanded in custody. The court has three judges and no jury, a structure used in Ireland for certain serious criminal cases.

Kinahan is charged under Section 71A of Ireland’s Criminal Justice Act 2006, as amended, with directing the activities of a criminal organization. The charge concerns conduct between 2015 and 2017; it is not a conviction.

Courthouse News reporter James Francis Whitehead is based in England.