IT was a sight many in Ireland thought they would never live to see.
Dubliner Daniel Kinahan, believed to head up the most formidable international cocaine super cartel the world has known, finally in chains on Irish soil.
The 49-year-old was extradited from the UAE under armed Garda escort aboard an Irish Air Corps jet on August 9 and appeared before a Special Criminal Court that same day.
He has been charged with a single count of directing the activities of a criminal organisation, covering the period October 2015 to April 2017.
It might seem underwhelming considering the gravity of his crimes, but the same charge got his lieutenant Sean McGovern 24 years in June.
Kinahan turned up with no lawyer and told the court: “I think we know I won’t be getting bail, but thank you for explaining that, judge.”
With the Kinahan cartel now in disarray, attention is turning to who might be stepping up to fill Daniel Kinahan’s shoes.
The spotlight initially fell on little-known Kinahan cousin Ian Dixon, 36, who once ran the now-defunct Auld Dubliner in Estepona.
He was recently tracked down coming second in a Dubai padel tournament, competing under the alias ‘Ian Thomas.’
Dixon also worked as a trainer at MGM Marbella, the boxing gym co-founded by Daniel Kinahan that later became MTK Global – until US sanctions shut it down.
However, his Dubai residency permit lapsed back in 2024 with over €9,400 in accumulated overstay fines for 852 days, casting doubt on whether he even has legal status in the UAE right now.
With Dixon’s candidacy in doubt, it paves the way for Daniel’s unassuming younger brother, Christopher Kinahan Jr, to take the throne.
Christopher was arrested by Spanish authorities on the Costa del Sol in 2010 during the famous Operation Shovel against the cartel, but never charged.
Thought to be one of the financial architects of the entire global operation, he is still living freely after Dubai renewed his two-year residency visa.
But having finally bagged his older brother, Irish authorities are now building a case against Christopher Jr based on a vast trove of data extracted from encrypted Blackberry handsets that the cartel assumed were secure.
Security sources believe the 45-year-old knows he may face arrest and say he is suffering from ‘severe anxiety’, according to The Times.
Meanwhile, the cartel’s founder, 69-year-old father Christy Kinahan Sr, remains free, but his own Dubai visa has also lapsed, leaving him in the same limbo as Dixon.
While the final decapitation of the Kinahan cartel would no doubt be good news, the struggle to fill their shoes will no doubt see more blood shed.
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