Shadowy Kinahan cartel fixer's five-star lifestyle laid bare in CAB case

Sunday World

07-07-2025

Convicted drug dealer Sam O'Sullivan also became a major supplier of encrypted technology for gangland mobster
During the hearing at Dublin's High Court, it was also revealed that a stay at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Las Vegas in August 2017 cost €2,000
A shadowy Kinahan cartel fixer travelled the world in five-star luxury as he jetted from Baku in Azerbaijan to Las Vegas, London and Dubai.
Convicted drug dealer Sam O'Sullivan, who spent an astonishing €190,000 educating his daughters in a posh Swiss school, also became a major supplier of encrypted technology for gangland mobsters.
However, it was the hacking of the Encrochat system by French police that led gardai to Ciaran 'Sam' O'Sullivan, and the Chinese money laundering operation he was using in Ireland.
18 Google Pixel Phones
The one-time protégé of Christy Kinahan Snr from south county Dublin clocked up so many air miles that he possessed a prized British Airways Executive Club gold card and an Aer Lingus Concierge card.
O'Sullivan's lavish lifestyle emerged this month in a Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) case against him, after a series of raids in June 2020.
The Bureau found he had funnelled more than €700,000 through an aunt's credit card account for flights and hotels around the world.
O'Sullivan used multiple currencies on his Revolut account and transferred $318,000 worth of crypto on the Coinbase exchange until his account was shut down for suspicious activity.
During the hearing at Dublin's High Court, it was also revealed that a stay at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Las Vegas in August 2017 cost €2,000, with another €7,000 paid for tickets to Conor McGregor's fight with Floyd Mayweather in 2017.
34 Apple iPhones
The cartel fixer was also at the Dave Haye v Tony Bellew fight in London earlier that year, where he forked out Stg£1,100 for a ticket.
He stayed at the luxury five-star Rosewood Hotel in London and also bought tickets for the Vienna Opera House in Austria.
O'Sullivan took a flight from Baku to Dubai in 2019, a short time before Daniel Kinahan was photographed in the Azerbaijan capital at an event with boxing promoter Bob Arum.
It also emerged that one of O'Sullivan's daughters was used to bring home documents from Switzerland relating to her father's business.
When officers searched the aunt's home in Glenageary, Dublin, they found a tick list with Encrochat codenames which appeared to show what was owed by each one.
There was also a handwritten note pleading for a debt to be cancelled.
The document was given to O'Sullivan's daughter by 'a close family friend' who asked that it be passed onto her father. The young woman 'indicated that her dad worked in computers.'
'However, she also said that she does not want to know what he does for a living as she suspects it was criminal in nature,' a Bureau officer said in evidence.
1oz Gold Coin
The Bureau claimed O'Sullivan used his 20 years of contacts in the drugs underworld to sell Encrochat handsets to Irish criminals, and was the country's biggest supplier of the technology.
An associate, Robert Noctor, was arrested with a stash of phones and €93,000 in cash in 2020 and left the country shortly after that.
He told gardai he sold handsets for €1,500 each and top-ups cost €600 every three months.
When gardai carried out the raids on O'Sullivan and the Chinese money laundering operation in June 2020, he was living with Noctor's ex-wife.
Gardai found O'Sullivan hiding in the ensuite toilet at her Co Wicklow home with three encrypted phones, two of which were concealed under folded towels.
While selling encrypted phones is not illegal, French police say that 90 per cent of users are in involved in crime.
A Bureau officer stated in his evidence that through his criminal contacts, O'Sullivan became 'a major player' in the sale and supply of the phones to criminal gangs.
During the hearing at Dublin's High Court, it was also revealed that a stay at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Las Vegas in August 2017 cost €2,000
Such activity is effectively an offence by 'enhancing the ability of a criminal organisation or any of its members to commit a serious offence'.
The Bureau also found he sold Encrochat phones to customers in Liverpool and Poland, while the Sunday World recently reported how he is alleged to have supplied users in France as well.
The Encrochat system was operational from 2015 until June 2020 after it was infiltrated by police.
It also emerged that as far back as 2017 Irish criminals were using the phones supplied by O'Sullivan when three men were stopped in a car with a batch of Encrochat handsets.
The men, described as 'well-known criminals from west Dublin', were in the vehicle which contained a box addressed to O'Sullivan.
In the box were 10 BQ Aquaris phones, the type preferred for use with the Encrochat system, and all were marked with user's codenames.
One of those men, Jordan Keogh (29) from Rowlagh Park in Clondalkin, was later jailed for money laundering after being caught with €122,715 in November 2020. The following year, the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau caught him in possession of an automatic handgun and ammunition.
He was caught again with €47,950 in September that year, according to the affidavit evidence.
€27K Rolex
Another man in the car, Gareth Dunne (31), from Harelawn Crescent, has 82 previous convictions, including nine for drugs but 'these convictions do not accurately portray his level of involvement in the drug trafficking industry in west Dublin.'
Dunne, who was formally warned by gardai about a threat to his life, was found with €27,151 in cash while on his way to buy a Rolex watch from a city centre jewellers in May 2020.
O'Sullivan's links to Christy Kinahan Snr and other cartel figures such as Bernard Clancy and Chris Casserly were highlighted, along with his drug dealing convictions in Spain and Holland.
Judge Alexander Owens last week found that the 34 iPhones, 18 Google Pixel smartphones, 10 Samsung Galaxy phones, a Rolex watch and a one-ounce gold coin found in the 2020 searches were all the proceeds of crime.
Also included was €3,060 cash that was seized during the search of the house in Glenageary and his girlfriend's house in Tulfarris, Co Wicklow.
Ciaran 'Sam' O'Sullivan was a one time protégé of Christy Kinahan Snr, left
Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 7th