Crime & Justice

Wanted Drug Kingpin Keeps Exposing His Location in Mundane Google Reviews

KINGPINS—JUST LIKE US

He’s wanted for running a $1 billion empire—but can’t stop reviewing restaurants, hotels, and luxury shops.

Google Maps logo on a smartphone.
Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty

It appears you can allegedly build a $1 billion drug empire and still be inept at using the internet. According to Bellingcat and the Sunday Times, notorious Kinahan Cartel leader Christopher Kinahan has been posting Google reviews of various establishments—including restaurants and luxury stores—in countries such as Spain, Egypt, Zimbabwe, and Hungary, potentially exposing a map of his location to U.S. authorities who are offering a collective $15 million for information on Kinahan and his sons. The reviews often included photos of the restaurants, which sometimes featured photos of the Irish drug lord himself. The outlets confirmed Kinahan maintained the Google profile as the email associated with it matched one connected to him in the past, and it was linked with a physical address that has popped up in U.S. documents sanctioning Kinahan. Photos posted on some of the establishments’ official websites also inadvertently included pictures of Kinahan. The revelation comes two years after a LinkedIn profile associated with Kinahan named “Christopher Vincent”—the same name on the Google account—was uncovered.

Read it at Bellingcat