Mob boss Daniel Kinahan is expected to be back on Irish soil within weeks, we can reveal.
The Irish Mirror has learned that gardai are making final preparations for cartel chief Kinahan (48) to potentially be flown back to Ireland from Dubai around mid July.
A massive security operation is now in place for the landmark extradition, which comes after he was arrested by Dubai Police in the United Arab Emirates city back in April.
Sources say gardai now have a tentative date to return Kinahan to Ireland, and plans are in place for him to be flown out on the new government jet within a matter of weeks.
This means gardai expect Kinahan to have lost his fight against the extradition, and authorities in the UAE have indicated they are ready to hand him over.
At the moment he is languishing in a prison cell at Dubai’s hellish Al Awir Central Prison, where he is set to mark his 49th birthday behind bars next Friday.
But sources say the UAE authorities are now eager to get rid of Kinahan - and that this also spells bad news for his father Christy Sr and his brother Christy Jr.
“The Dubai Police want all the Kinahans gone,” a source said. “They don’t want them there anymore.”
Christy Sr and his son Christy Jr are not currently subject to any arrest warrant, but could soon find themselves being deported from the haven that they have called home for the past decade.
The pair did become the subject of US sanctions back in April 2022, and a $5M bounty for information that might lead to each of their prosecutions was issued at the time.
Sources say this will make it increasingly more difficult for the remaining Kinahans to find safe haven in other countries, though Christy Sr does have at least some connections and resources within Northern Africa.
If the extradition of Daniel Kinahan goes ahead as planned, he is likely to be flown into Dublin’s Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel on the newly purchased government jet.
The unprecedented operation will involve armed garda units and the Defence Forces.
When he lands, Kinahan can expect to be arrested and charged on the tarmac with directing a criminal organisation, a charge that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
From there he will be brought to the Special Criminal Court in Dublin’s Criminal Courts of Justice on Parkgate Street where he will be formally charged and remanded into custody.
Armed units are then expected to escort the Irish Prison Service while transporting Kinahan to the country’s maximum security prison - Portlaoise Prison in Co Laois.
He is then expected to be held on the prison’s ‘A’ Block, where his close pal and confidant Sean McGovern is being held.
His trial is unlikely to take place until well into next year at the earliest.
McGovern was sentenced just last week to 24 years in prison for his role in directing a criminal organisation in relation to the feud murder of innocent dad-of-two Noel ‘Duck Egg’ Kirwan, and in relation to the surveillance and targeting of Hutch associate James ‘Mago’ Gately.
McGovern, who was Kinahan’s closest confidant, was nailed in part by encrypted conversations intercepted by gardai that showed how he and other cartel members plotted the murder of Mr Kirwan and set about targeting Gately.
Sources say some of those encrypted chats, uncovered by the breaking of ‘Pretty Good Privacy’ (PGP) devices, will be central to the case against Daniel Kinahan himself.
Gardai are understood to allege that encrypted handles known as ‘Bon Neww,’ 'Bon4' and 'Cap' which communicated with and gave orders to McGovern and others at the height of the feud, belonged to Daniel Kinahan.
In one conversation revealed during McGovern’s case, the Special Criminal Court heard how Sean McGovern told 'Cap' following the Regency Hotel shooting: “Mate I’m fuming I swear to God what about doing Mink’s daughter or will that bring too much heat?”
‘Cap’ then responded, “Yes, but maybe only Neddie,” in a message referencing Eddie Hutch, a brother of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch. Those messages were sent on February 7, 2017, just one day before Eddie was ultimately murdered by the cartel at his home in Poplar Row in Dublin.
Other encrypted chats revealed that the cartel plot to track James Gately was first hatched in October 2015 and later in 2017 ‘Bon Neww’ directed McGovern to go after him.
“Hate the horrible rat bag. Get Mago,” Bon Neww (allegedly Kinahan) told McGovern in April 2017.
On April 3, 2017, Estonian hitman Imre Arakas flew into Ireland and the following day was arrested by gardai at an address at Blakestown Cottages. Officers ultimately seized a Blackberry device containing the encrypted instructions he was receiving from the handle they suspect was Kinahan.
The court heard how a member of the Garda Emergency Response Unit took photos of the conversations before they were remotely wiped.
In those messages Arakas was conversing with ‘Bon Neww’ about using a ‘silencer’ and shooting Gately in the head from a distance.
The court also heard that ‘Bon Neww’ relayed messages to Arakas, including informing him that Gately ‘drives most days, he seems to go to Newry and back.’
Arakas was also told to Google a picture of Gately, with the message informing him that the second image on the site was a clear picture of him.
After Arakas was arrested, the cartel’s reaction to the development was laid bare in the encrypted conversations revealed in court, with McGovern openly telling associates that the car was now in the ‘PSNI barracks.’
'BonNew' determined that “something is not right here,” to which McGovern agreed and ultimately responded with another message informing them that Arakas was “arrested this morning.”
Further conversations revealed that McGovern did not believe Arakas could be hit with a charge. In a message to ‘Bon Neww,’ McGovern said: “In fairness what can he be done with?”
The ‘Bon Neww’ account (which gardai will allege to be Kinahan) responded by claiming that “they make up new laws every day,” and added “f*ck the old bill.”
In further conversations between McGovern and his alleged boss, he speaks about newspaper coverage of the arrest and says there is a “stitch up,” going on.
‘Bon New,’ went on to reassure McGovern that he has a “new plan, don’t worry but I need to get out of there for a bit.”
McGovern at the time said he was concerned that there is a ‘rat’ and in a later message was informed by ‘Bon New’ that they will have Mago in the next two to four weeks.
McGovern responded to that by saying this is the “best news…once everyone is safe.”
But subsequent messages shown for the first time in court earlier this year revealed further panic by McGovern, who in response to the prosecution of Arakas asked in the encrypted messages: "How the f**k are they charging him with murder. Time to get the f**k out of here before we're all in cuffs."
That fear has now become a reality, and in the coming weeks the pair are likely to be locked up together on the same prison landing.
Gardai also believe Kinahan was central to and on the ground for the murder of Eddie Hutch on February 8, 2016.
The brother of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch was gunned down outside his home on Poplar Row in Dublin’s Inner City just three days after the Regency Hotel murder of Kinahan cartel associate David Byrne.
It is suspected that Kinahan played a hands-on role in that murder as he vowed revenge for the murder of his associate - but also the attempt on his own life at the boxing weigh-in event just days earlier.
Sources say gardai believe an enraged Kinahan then directed the activities of the cartel from abroad in waging murder and mayhem on the streets of Dublin over the following two years.
Gardai now believe the feud really began when the Hutch gang tried to take over and fought for supremacy in the drugs market.
Gary Hutch tried to have Kinahan murdered in August 2014 - but the hitman got the wrong man - shooting and injuring innocent boxer Jamie Moore instead.
As part of a hastily arranged peace deal, Gary’s brother Patrick agreed to be shot in the leg by a Kinahan enforcer - and the Hutch mob paid more than €200,000 in compensation to end the feud with Kinahan.
But Kinahan reneged on the deal and had Hutch murdered. In November of that year, the Hutchs are believed to have tried to kill Kinahan in revenge when he was at a boxing event in the Red Cow Hotel in Dublin - but he survived.
The Kinahans then are believed to have attempted to murder Gerry Hutch in a failed bid in Lanzarote that December.
As many as 18 men lost their lives in the feud - but the war all resulted in a massive Garda crackdown on the Kinahans and eventually the simmering down of the feud.
Many of their key lieutenants were locked up, and massive sanctions were ultimately imposed on the leaders of the Kinahan cartel by the United States Treasury Department in April 2022.
The cartel, which is estimated to be worth over €1 billion, is no longer considered to be operating in this country - but remains a top target for gardai and the American DEA.
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