'A decade on and there is little sign of Kinahan gang facing proper justice'
The Kinahan crime family are literally getting away with murder and our Gardai at the moment are powerless to do anything about it.10 years after the infamous Regency Hotel shooting in which their loyal lieutenant David Byrne was assassinated, Christy Snr, Christy Jnr or Daniel Kinahan have not been held to account for the ruthless and evil retaliation murders of 14 members of the Hutch family and their associates.Former boxing promoter and Kinahan gang boss, Daniel Kinahan, was the original intended target of the Hutch family hit but luckily escaped unharmed.But in the decade since he has used all his time, vast underworld connections and wealth to wipe out their arch Dublin rivals once and for all.The one man that Daniel couldn't take down was Gerry Hutch, the head of the Hutch family, and now a would-be politician, who came within a whisker of winning a Dail seat in the last General Election.He was cleared of the murder of Byrne by the Special Criminal Court but the Kinahans are still out to get him. Gerry Hutch keeps his movements a guarded secret and spends his time living between his native Dublin and Lanzarote, where he has extensive property and business interests.The authorities are still out to get him and the Irish Revenue have hit him with a €800,000 bill for tax evasion while he is currently on bail from the Spanish courts as he is under investigation in the Canary Islands for money-laundering.The notorious Kinahan godfather, Christy Snr and his two sons are living the lavish millionaire high life in Dubai.The Americans have put a combined €15 million bounty on their heads for anybody who can provide information that will lead to their arrests. Some of their cash and assets have been seized by the authorities in the United Arab Emirates but generally, so far the Dubai police have not moved to lay a finger on them.The Kinahans have good police contacts, huge wealth from their worldwide drug dealings, and vital Arab political connections.They have their own Russian private security team and move from week-to-week to different homes they own in the gulf desert paradise.The Irish Government and Gardai are doing their best to bring the three Kinahans home to stand trial for their crimes. However, it is proving increasingly more difficult than originally thought.Ireland has a new extradition agreement with the UAE and it recently resulted in the departure of loyal Kinahan henchman Sean McGovern from Dubai to Dublin on a murder charge.But charges have to be preferred against the three leaders of the crime family before they can be arrested in Dubai for extradition and that has not happened yet.A large file on the criminal activities of the Kinahans has been sitting in the Office of the DPP for over 30 months since August 2023 last.My understanding is it runs to thousands of pages but little or nothing has been done about it much to the dismay of the hard-working Garda team tracking and chasing the Kinahans.The technical term is the file is "under review" by the DPP but what this means in layman's language is that they have not yet agreed to issue charges against one of the world's biggest drug cartels because they don't believe they have enough on them to justify charges and get a conviction.There are two elements to the files - directing an organised crime gang and also the murder of Eddie Hutch.Senior officials in the Government, the Department of Justice and the Gardai are all frustrated at the failure to issue charges. They can't interfere because the DPP is an independent body.They collectively can't blame the authorities in Dubai for not arresting the Kinahans because they haven't technically committed any crimes there. The only way the Dubai police can act is if extradition warrants on the back of individual charge sheets from Ireland are issued to them.The Gardai are trying to get more evidence. What they need is a Kinahan insider to spill the beans and become a protected witness with the promise of a new life abroad.There does not appear to be any prospective supergrasses coming forward because they know their life would be in danger and a million euro hit put on their head.The Gardai will never talk publicly about the DPP but they are hoping that the prosecutors might make a positive decision in the months ahead and issue some form of charges - but don't bet on it.The Kinahan boys meanwhile are living the life of luxury from their ill gotten gains.Their power and influence in Ireland is not what it used to be following the arrest and conviction of 20 to 30 of their Irish foot soldiers as a result of the Hutch feud.However the Gardai and the Government are both right not to underestimate them because their organisation is still a dangerous threat to this State, and they are still supplying most of the drug shipments to Europe via our unguarded west coast.Only time will tell if justice against the Kinahans will prevail.Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.
