Kinahan boss Sean McGovern arrives in Ireland on Air Corps plane
Kinahan cartel boss Sean McGovern is due to arrive in Ireland on Thursday evening to face murder and gangland charges, having been extradited from Dubai on Wednesday night.
McGovern - described by United States authorities as Daniel Kinahan's closest confidant - is being flown back to Ireland from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates by the Air Corps and accompanied by Gardaí.
The Air Corps' €120 million Casa C295 maritime surveillance plane left Dubai at approximately 8.30pm Irish time on Wednesday evening. The crew, accompanied by Gardaí, are understood to have left Ireland in recent days on the aircraft, before reaching Dubai on Tuesday evening after a 6,000km flight.
Dubai cops handed McGovern over to Gardaí on Wednesday before the long flight back to Ireland, which stopped off in Larnaca in Cyprus and Marseille in France before its scheduled arrival at Air Corps HQ in Baldonnel.
McGovern, from Crumlin, is expected to appear at the non-jury Special Criminal Court shortly after the C295 lands in Dublin. Gardaí will arrest him as soon as he lands and he will then be charged and brought to court.
The dramatic move follows Dubai's arrest of McGovern, 38, in the desert oil state last October.
That was on foot of an extradition request from Irish authorities. The request was made after the Director of Public Prosecutions ordered that McGovern be charged with two offences linked to the Kinahan Hutch feud, a war that left up to 18 men dead.
McGovern is to be charged with the December 2016 murder in Clondalkin in the west of the capital of Noel Kirwan.
Gardaí have also been authorised to charge McGovern - who was one of seven people including Daniel, Christopher and Christy Kinahan - to be formally sanctioned by America in April 2022, for directing a crime gang.
That is a rarely-used law that can see anyone convicted for life - which is also the penalty for someone found guilty of murder. McGovern has been in custody in Dubai since October, but he was fighting the extradition request.
But he lost that fight and is now being brought back to Ireland - where he will now face justice. Ireland had no extradition treaty with Dubai at the time, but former Justice Minister Helen McEntee and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris both lobbied UAE authorities to get McGovern arrested.
Ireland and the UAE have now agreed a deal and that is sure to be bad news for the three Kinahan men - who are also holed up in the UAE.
Gardaí want them hit with serious charges, but the Director of Public Prosecutions has made no decision on those three men yet.
Follow live updates in the blog below.
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