
“Socalj” for Borderland Beat
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The Irish Garda has completed a major criminal investigation into the leadership figures of the Kinahan Cartel, submitting a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for a decision on criminal charges against them.
The crimes investigated were committed in the Irish Republic and are linked to the cartel’s drug-trafficking business and its dispute, which escalated into a bloody feud with the Hutch gang, resulting in 18 dead.
Many Garda officers believed that US authorities were the most likely to bring the Kinahans to justice, mainly because of the power of US law enforcement and the rewards of up to $5 million offered for information that would lead to criminal charges.
However, there is now renewed hope the leadership figures of the cartel, who have been based mainly in Dubai for much of the past decade, will be charged in the Republic and extradited there to face trial. The Garda file has been under review by the DPP for several months and there is optimism within Irish law-enforcement charges will be approved.
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When asked about the investigation being completed and the DPP’s ongoing review of the file, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said he could not comment on any investigations into “individual members of the Kinahan organized crime group.”
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Packages of drugs were discovered along the north Donegal coastline in July. |
Massive Cocaine Seizures
Barely a week goes by without reports of massive and, in some cases, record seizures of cocaine across Europe, including Ireland. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) has been reporting “unprecedented” levels of cocaine production and cocaine seizures in recent years, with each year seeing new records.
Also in July, Revenue officers in Rosslare made two massive hauls, the first a 163 kilos seizure inside a concealed roof of a trailer fridge unit and the second a 133 kilos consignment inside the roof of a horse box off a ferry.
But, the largest hauls have occurred elsewhere in Europe. Last month, authorities in Germany found 10 tons of cocaine in the port of Hamburg, Italian agencies found 5 tons of cocaine off the Sicilian coast while 6.8 tons were seized in Brussels, Belgium.
Assistant Commissioner Justin Kelly, head of organized and serious crime, told the Irish Examiner there was “no shortage” of cocaine, despite the seizures. He said the supply glut was met by what appeared to be an “insatiable appetite” for cocaine in Ireland and elsewhere.
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Chilean cocaine trafficker “El Rico” |
Daniel Kinahan’s ‘Super Cartel’ ally `El Rico’ has been moved from the maximum security Extra Secure Institution (EBI) in the Netherlands to a “supervision unit” as he prepares for his freedom. The Dutch-Chilean drug trafficker Ricardo Riquelme Vega, was sentenced to 11 years in prison. According to the Dutch Public Prosecution Service, “El Rico” was the leader of a criminal organization that carried out assassinations, traded in cocaine, and laundered money.
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Italian cocaine broker turned witness Raffaele Imperiale. |
Key Kinahan Associates Cooperating
“El Rico” also had contacts with the Italian cocaine broker Raffaele Imperiale, tied to the Camorra. Imperiale has become a cooperating witness in Italy, however, he has stated that he would refuse to testify against “El Rico” in order to bring additional charges against him. “The fact that Imperiale refuses to testify in the Dutch criminal case against Rico R does not mean that he will not make any statements in Italy about his suspected Dutch criminal contacts,” the Dutch news site Het Parool reports.
Imperiale who is currently in an Italian prison after being extradited from Dubai, is regarded as a key figure in Europe’s Super Cartel. He attended Daniel Kinahan’s wedding in 2017 at the luxury Burj al Arab in Dubai and was known as a playboy when he lived in Dubai, prior to his arrest in August 2021.
For years, Imperiale ran drug lines between the Netherlands and Italy, distributing shipments of 100 to 150 kilos at a time.
Having secured default judgments against Kinahan and MTK after they ‘ghosted’ the legal proceedings and refused to answer the summons, the case is now at a stage where damages against Kinahan and MTK are being assessed. Among those who were scheduled to be called to give evidence before the court in California were Kinahan’s former business associate and former MTK CEO Bob Yalen, Top Rank boss Bob Arum, and boxer JoJo Diaz.
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Boxing promotions legend Bob Arum. |
Top Rank Bob Arum repeatedly spoke publicly about his business relationship with Kinahan in the past, stating at one point he had paid Daniel Kinahan €4 million for his role in organizing fights involving Tyson Fury. Arum revealed how Kinahan opened up to him about doing ‘bad things’ and said that Dublin-born mobster was hoping to get out of ‘that other stuff.’
“He has kids and he said he wanted to get out of that other stuff. “He said to me, ‘Bob, I’ve done some bad things in my life. I admit that. But I’m not involved with that anymore.” But, Arum continued: “There came a time that we discovered that he might still have been involved in some nefarious activities. That was enough for us.”
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Thomas “Bomber” Kavanagh, Kinahan’s longtime man in the UK. |
He is already serving a 21-year sentence for overseeing shipments of cocaine and cannabis into the UK worth €36 million.
He said the killings require significant logistics and a “huge amount of money” to fund them, adding that gardaí have made it “difficult” for the Kinahan leaders to fund or organize any such hit teams again. The Hutch family has been under guard off and on, especially since the release of Gerry “Monk” Hutch
Kinahan Group No Longer Dominant
Assistant Commissioner Justin Kelly, head of organized and serious crime, said the Dublin crime gang is no longer the dominant force it once was after the leaders “brought a huge amount of this attention on themselves.”
He said recent investigations had resulted in a seismic change in the level of cooperation between various agencies in other countries and Ireland. This has been greatly boosted by the expansion of garda liaison officers to Colombia and Dubai while Asia is next on the cards.
Assistant Commissioner Kelly was referring to successive operations and investigations by Irish, British, and Spanish authorities and the massive $15 million total bounty put on the heads of the three cartel leaders by the US in April 2022.
He said gun crime had plummeted in recent years because “dozens and dozens” of men involved in the Kinahan-Hutch feud were jailed in the Republic and this had deterred other gangs from engaging in gun murders or feuding. However, Irish organized gangs were still heavily involved in the drug trade.
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Commissioner Drew Harris |
Possible Power Vacuum in Ireland
All of this could see greater involvement of Balkan and Albanian gangs using Ireland.