Suspected Irish crime boss in court after extradition

Suspected crime boss Daniel Kinahan has been remanded in custody after being extradited to Ireland from Dubai on charges of leading an organised criminal group.

Kinahan, 49, arrived at Casement Airfield, southwest of Dublin, aboard an Irish government plane and under heavy security on Sunday night (local time)

He was escorted to the Special Criminal Court in Dublin by a massive convoy, where he was charged with directing the activities of a criminal organisation between October 18, 2015 and April 6, 2017.

According the BBC the Irish Prison Service bought a bulletproof and bombproof van to escort Kinahan.

A large crowd turned up to wait outside the building close to Dublin’s Phoenix Park in the hope of glimpsing him.

Kinahan appeared in the dock wearing a black hoodie and appeared calm, putting on a pair of dark-rimmed glasses and taking a sip of water from a bottle after taking his seat.

He was not represented by a lawyer during the brief hearing before three judges.

Kinahan told the court: “I was taken in Dubai and isolated from Friday afternoon,” adding that he assumed a family member would have contacted a legal representative.

But he added that he was happy to proceed with the hearing at that stage.

Detective Sergeant Colin Davidson told the court he had arrested Kinahan on foot of an arrest warrant issued by the Irish courts.

He said he ensured the accused understood the charge.

A judge told Kinahan when the case would next be heard, and explained to him that because of the charge an application for bail would have to be made to the High Court.

“I understand. I think we know I won’t be getting bail, but thank you,” Kinahan said.

He was remanded in custody and taken to the maximum-security prison in Portlaoise.

Kinahan will next appear in court on October 5, and was told that he had the option of either attending in person or appearing via video link.

He said he would decide later.

Irish police chief Justin Kelly said “this arrest shows our determination, along with our international policing partners including Dubai Police, to target transnational organised crime groups”.

In a joint statement Sunday, UAE and Irish justice ministers called Kinahan “one of the most high-profile individuals sought for prosecution in connection with transnational organised crime”.

Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has previously said the Kinahan cartel has been responsible for importing tonnes of drugs and firearms around the world and has also been linked to more than a dozen gangland murders.

Kinahan had lost a final appeal against extradition from the UAE, where he had been living openly for around a decade before his arrest.

He is be held in the high-security Portlaoise Prison in central Ireland, which houses some of the country’s most notorious prisoners.

Kinahan moved to the UAE from Spain around 2016 after the murder of one of his associates and an attempt on his life at a boxing weigh-in at a Dublin hotel.

The Kinahan Organised Crime Group, which emerged in the 1990s in Ireland, is considered to be one of the largest in the world with a presence in several countries including the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and Spain.

The UK’s National Crime Agency has said previously that the cartel has been responsible for importing drugs and firearms and linked to gangland murders.

In 2022, the US government offered a reward of up to $US5 million for the capture of the Kinahan leaders, including Daniel.