'Be afraid, we are coming for you' - Garda chief sends warning to Kinahan trio

Irish Daily Mirror

4 hours ago

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has warned the surviving leaders of the Kinahan cartel: 'we are coming for you'.
'They should be worried,' Mr Harris said on Monday – 12 days after Daniel Kinahan's key confidant Sean McGovern was sent back from Dubai to face serious charges in his native Dublin, including murder.
The three Kinahan men – Christy, 67, Daniel, 47 and Christopher 44 – are also holed up in Dubai and Mr Harris now says time is running out for them in the desert state of the United Arab Emirates.
And he added: 'Ourselves and other law enforcement are fixed on them, and we are fixed on bringing them all to justice.'
Speaking at Garda HQ in Dublin's Phoenix Park, Mr Harris warned the leaders – who like McGovern were hit with sanctions by United States authorities in April 2022 – were the subject of an unprecedented international law enforcement operation.
He said: 'They should have been worried now for a number of years because there's huge effort, huge investigative effort, and international effort, has gone into the investigation of the overall Kinahan organised crime gang.
'A lot of things which they said couldn't be done, have been done. So following on from the sanctions, the work that we've undertaken with the UAE, and the work that specifically we've undertaken with the police in Dubai has been very fruitful.
'They have been very active partners with us in terms of investigation, providing us information, and obviously, UAE authorities have worked to support the extradition, and you see an individual then extradited back to Ireland to face justice here, and that's the correct thing to do.'
The sanctions also saw each of the Kinahan trio have a bounty of $5 million placed on their heads – and Mr Harris told other members of the gang that they should consider turning their bosses in and taking the reward money.
He said: 'I would also point out the other senior lieutenants within the Kinahan Organised Crime group who are now facing justice or are imprisoned, and the sanctions and the rewards still stand.
'And I would point to there's $15 million there of reward money through the federal law enforcement authorities of the US, so that is still in play as well.
'I just want to remind others in the Kinahan Organised Grime Gang of the perilous position that they're now in.
'So all of them should be worried, and they should be thinking about the choices, serious life choices that are now ahead of them, in respect of what to do over the coming months. Our work with the Dubai police obviously carries on.'
And Deputy Commissioner Justin Kelly – who oversaw much of the crackdown on the Kinahans when he was in charge of the force's serious crime operations – said that mid ranking members of the cartel had serious life decisions to take.
'Some of these people need to have a really good think,' he said.
'They have some serious life choices they can make. They have a choice to make. The rewards are in place.'
He also said the May 29 extradition of Crumlin, south Dublin native McGovern, 39, showed that gardai were determined to hunt down major gangsters.
Mr Kelly said: 'A number of years ago…myself and the commissioner were asked about this, and I think what we had said was, we would be relentless in our pursuit of some of these transnational organised crime groups.
'And I think the events last week as absolute evidence of that.
'And I think it's really important as well that everybody knows that there's other transnational organised crime groups outside the Kinahan OCG, and exactly the same for those.
'It doesn't matter where in the world they are. If there are charges here, we will seek to have them extradited back to Ireland. So extradition agreements, all the work by the Department of Justice, Department of Foreign Affairs, are really important to our organization.
'I'll just repeat that again. We will be absolutely relentless in our pursuit of these criminals.'
And he said the international manhunt would not stop at the Kinahans – and pointed out that gardai had already dismantled two other gangs here.
One is believed to be a gang from Blanchardstown in west Dublin that has been heavily targeted by gardai, while the other is thought to be the Family, a major outfit from Clondalkin. It has been targeted and degraded by gardai – as well as cops in Spain.
Mr Kelly said: 'There are people that are involved in organised crime, and they need to look and see what the result of that is.
'We have absolutely dismantled two of the organised crime groups here in Dublin.
'At one stage, we had 47 members of one group in jail.
'So if you make those life choices and you want to become involved in this, the reality facing you is the full force of the state against you and investigations by specialist investigators, prosecutions, many of these cases end up in the Special Criminal Court.
'As you're all aware, there's been numerous lengthy sentences sent out for possession of drugs, firearms. Now we have substantial legislation around organised crime, directing and facilitating organised crime.
'So there's a huge range of powers we have. And even beyond that, we can see people who are convicted, their houses are now being subject to Criminal Assets Bureau orders. So before people get involved in this, this is the type of thing they need to look at.'
Gardai have sent investigative files on the three Kinahan men to the Director of Public Prosecutions and have asked for them to be charged with a range of gangland offences that can carry life sentences.
And a separate file on the murder of Eddie Hutch, the 58-year-old brother of Gerry 'the Monk' Hutch who was shot dead by the cartel in February 2016, has also asked for Daniel to be charged.
The files are currently being considered by the DPP – and Commissioner Harris declined on Monday to be drawn on the status of them.
He said: 'I can't talk to specific files or where we are in terms of the individuals or the directions - I won't talk to that.
"All I can say is that through our own National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, the investigations are active and our involvement, then through Europol, with the (UK's National Crime Agency), but also US federal law enforcement that continues to be active as well.'
Mr Harris made his comments less than a fortnight after the extradition from Dubai of McGovern, named by US authorities as Daniel Kinahan's right hand man.
He is charged with one murder and four gangland offences.
He is charged with the murder of Christoper, aka Noel, Kirwan at St Ronan's Drive in Clondalkin in west Dublin on December 22, 2016.
Mr Kirwan, 62, was shot dead in the driveway of his home. He was targeted by the Kinahan cartel after he was spotted with Gerry 'the Monk' Hutch at the funeral of his brother Eddie.
Mr McGovern is also charged with four gangland offences.
It is alleged that between October 20, 2016 and December 22, 2016, he directed the activities of the criminal gang that murdered Mr Kirwan. It is also alleged that between the same dates he facilitated the crime gang's murder of Mr Kirwan.
He faces a further two charges in relation to a murder attempt on James 'Maggo' Gately, 36, a leading figure in the Hutch organised crime gang.
It is alleged that between October 17, 2015 and April 6, 2017, he directed a criminal organisation in relation to the monitoring of activity of Mr Gately.
It is further alleged that between the same dates, he facilitated a conspiracy to murder Mr Gately.
McGovern is in custody in Portlaoise Prison and is due to appear at the non-jury Special Criminal Court later this month.