DUBLIN, Ireland—U.S. authorities have offered a $15 million reward for information leading to the arrest of three members of a notorious Irish crime family accused of running a $1 billion crime, property, and boxing empire.
At a media event in Dublin on Wednesday, the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control said the Kinahan cartel would now be pursued in the same way as the Italian Camorra, the Japanese yakuza, or the Russian Izmaylovskaya crime groups.
The reward was offered as three separate $5 million bounties for information on purported gang leaders Christy Kinahan Sr., Daniel Kinahan, and Christopher Kinahan Jr. Four other Irishmen and three companies said to be controlled by the gang were also placed on a U.S. commercial sanctions list, the Irish Times reported.
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Daniel Kinahan has long sought to establish himself as a legitimate sports promoter, but he’s drawn widespread disgust in Ireland, where the Kinahans are best known as violent criminals who leave a trail of chaos, addiction, and corpses in their wake.
British heavyweight champ Tyson Fury publicly thanked Kinahan in 2020 for his role in trying to put together a fight with Anthony Joshua. In February, former Irish premier Leo Varadkar, who is due to resume the premiership later this year, said he was “unimpressed” after Kinahan was pictured with Fury on the rooftop of a hotel in Dubai.
U.S. Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said the gang uses Dubai as a “hub” for its operations, which span Ireland, the U.K., Spain, and the United Arab Emirates.
Daniel Kinahan lives openly in the UAE with apparent impunity.
Nelson said Wednesday that Daniel “is believed to run the day-to-day operations of the organization,” which he described as one of the world’s largest organized-crime groups. He said the gang “smuggles deadly narcotics, including cocaine, to Europe, and is a threat to the entire licit economy through its role in international money laundering.”
The Kinahan clan has long been intimately connected with the world of Irish boxing. Their involvement in the sport hit the headlines after a botched 2016 hit, conducted during a weigh-in for a boxing match at Dublin’s Regency hotel.
Kinahan was said to be the target of the attack by the rival Hutch family. The would-be assassins missed Kinahan, but his close associate David Byrne was shot dead in the attack.
Gerry “The Monk” Hutch and former Sinn Fein councilor Jonathan Dowdall are due to face a murder trial later this year.
Reprisals since the Regency killing have left 16 people dead on both sides of the Kinahan-Hutch feud, which has played out largely in Ireland and Spain, where many of the suspects live.
Daniel Kinahan fled Spain several years ago for the UAE, from where he now reportedly runs the empire. He has since sought to sanitize his image and has received much support from influential figures in the boxing world, as many on social media were quick to remind their followers today.
The move by the U.S. authorities, which vowed to “dismantle” the Kinahan network, represents a huge boost to Dublin’s long-held ambition to bring the powerful crime family to account.
“Criminal groups like the KOCG prey on the most vulnerable in society and bring drug-related crime and violence, including murder, to the countries in which they operate,” said Nelson.
