Arrest of Steven Lyons and Ross McGill puts the Kinahans in a 'precarious' pickle, says Ireland's top cop
The head of the police and security service in the Republic of Ireland has spoken out about the arrest of four Scottish gangland figures in Dubai last year.Steven Lyons, the head of the Lyons crime family, was picked up in his desert bolthole last September alongside Steven Larwood, Ross 'Miami' McGill and a fourth man.They were later released from prison and ordered to leave the United Arab Emirates – with the whereabouts of Lyons and McGill still unknown. The fourth man was returned to Scotland where he appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court last month to face drugs and organised crime charges dating back to 2020.And the move set alarm bells ringing at the headquarters of Garda Síochána in Dublin and the Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington DC. Both these organisations are on the trail of Dubai's most notorious resident – the Irish cartel boss, Daniel Kinahan.READ MORE: Man accused of shooting Scots gangsters is caged in Spanish prison that once held the KinahansREAD MORE: Daniels gangsters boasting about 'organising execution of Monaghan and Lyons Jr'A profile in the New Yorker, which quotes multiple underworld and law enforcement sources, said the "four Scottish men were arrested by the Dubai police without the oversight of Scotland's police service".Justin Kelly, the Garda commissioner, welcomed the notion that the Dubai police were no longer waiting for their European counterparts to intervene against organised criminals. "There's a reputational issue for the UAE," he said. "I definitely see a positive change."The New Yorker's Ed Caesar describes the Kinahan family's situation in Dubai as "precarious", although he quotes a DEA source as saying that the Trump administration now has "little interest in pursuing" the gang. For the Americans, they only ever wanted the man at the top. "It's all about Dan," said one source.The Irish crime family – said to be worth a billion dollars – was put on the US Treasury's most wanted list in 2022 when Joe Biden was in the White House and ranked alongside Mexico's Los Zetas, Japan's Yakuza and Russia's Thieves In Law. The Americans put up a five million dollar reward for information leading to the arrest of the gang leaders, which Mr Kelly says is still available.The Gardai passed two bundles of evidence to the Irish prosecution service more than 18 months ago, accusing Daniel Kinahan of running a global crime syndicate and being responsible for the 2016 murder of rival Dublin gangster Eddie Hutch. However, the prosecutors have yet to bring charges.In the meantime, the 48-year-old boxing fanatic is still living his life of luxury in Dubai – the place where he is believed to have forged an alliance with Steven Lyons, 44. This association with one of the world's biggest cartels allowed the Lyons gang to gain the upper hand in the Scottish underworld.However, the balance has shifted dramatically over the past 12 months. It began when McGill, 31, was ripped off in a drug deal by members of jailed Edinburgh cocaine boss Mark Richardson's crew. This left 'Miami' – a former Rangers football ultra – determined to exact revenge.His 'Tamo Junto' gang in Scotland launched an all-out assault on Richardson and his allies in the Daniel crime family – the long-standing rivals of the Lyons. A fierce spate of violence saw firebombings, drive-by shootings and machete attacks, and more than 60 people have now been arrested with two convictions so far.However, nobody was killed – until May 31, when Lyons gang bosses Ross Monaghan, 44, and Eddie Lyons Jr, 46, were gunned down in an Irish pub in Fuengirola in front of the bar's shocked patrons. Police Scotland insist there is no evidence to link the murders to the gang feud, although Spanish police say the alleged hitman has links to the Daniels. Michael Riley, 45, from Merseyside, has been extradited from the UK and is awaiting trial in a notorious prison outside Malaga.Others suggest the murders may be linked to the Kinahans, and may even have a connection to the seizure of the container ship MV Matthew by the Irish Army Rangers off the coast of Cork in September 2023. It was carrying more than two tons of cocaine, and the Gardai believe the smuggling attempt was arranged and co-financed by the Kinahans, Colombia's Clan del Golfo, and Hezbollah operatives based in Venezuela.The New Yorker article traces the ownership of the vessel to a shadowy Dubai-based company called Symphony Marine, registered using only a single email address belonging to a shipping broker called Jacob Joseph. He said his email was used without his consent and suggested the real owners were "from Iran".READ MORE: The inside story of Dubai's downfall as a desert paradise for global criminals and drug traffickersREAD MORE: £30m cocaine haul seized in Ireland in dramatic swoop was destined for Scotland, police believeCaesar writes: "This suggests that the Kinahans remain bedfellows with geopolitical pariahs." The gang's links to Iran go back years, and some believe that Daniel Kinahan may ultimately be forced to flee to Iran or Russia if faced with arrest and extradition back to Ireland.However, the article also includes fascinating evidence of how the Kinahans – and their junior Scottish partners-in-crime, the Lyons – were able to go on living in the mega-rich desert kingdom for so many years.Raffaele Imperiale was arrested in Dubai in 2021 and extradited to Italy. He was a member of the 'Super Cartel' put together by Kinahan involving an alliance of European and South American gangsters – and most likely including the Lyons, at least at some level.The New Yorker visited the prosecutor's office in Naples, where Caesar was allowed to read Imperiale's statement. Describing the Super Cartel, he said: "We're all dependent on each other, but also all competitors. Sometimes we're business partners, and then our paths separate again."He told how a Chilean Super Cartel member called Rico Riquelme wanted to bring in a team of hitmen (known as "ninjas") to rub out a rival in Dubai. However, it was called off because "the Irish said, 'You shouldn't commit murders in Dubai, we live here, our children are here, this is a neutral country' ... Daniel didn't want it, and he has an important voice."Read more from the Scottish Daily Express. Click here for Scottish News, click here for Politics and click here to return to the Home Page.
