GANG HUNT

‘Veil has been lifted’ on Daniel Kinahan as Government plot to bring cartel leaders to justice with Dubai deal

There have been 18 killings linked to the Kinahan/Hutch feud

• In Brussels
• Published: 17:35, 25 Oct 2023
• Updated: 17:35, 25 Oct 2023

MEP Frances Fitzgerald has backed the Government’s bid to bring Daniel Kinahan to justice and said his “veil has been lifted”.

The net is closing in on the leaders of the cartel after top cops from Dubai jetted into Dublin this week to discuss the garda probe into the gang.

Current Justice Minister Helen McEntee has also met with her UAE counterpart to discuss a possible extradition deal that could see the Kinahans brought back to Ireland to face charges.

And former Justice Minister Fitzgerald said mobs like the Kinahan’s have been exposed by the cooperation of international police forces.

The MEP told the Irish Sun: “What is very clear is that crime knows no borders.

“Increasingly police forces have to work with other police forces around the world.

Read more on Kinahan cartel

“We have to put more and more resources into international work and equally that we can track people in other countries and bring them back to face justice.

“And we need the cooperation of other countries to do that.

“But what has really been exposed is the scale of various gangs internationally and the roots they have developed in other countries.

“And you just have to keep questioning that as it’s not acceptable that people can run gangs from outside Ireland and create such havoc.

“The veil has been lifted and I think the police forces are making more and more progress but it’s huge. The criminals always try to stay ahead of the justice system.”

Fitzgerald was the Justice Minister when armed thugs stormed the Regency Hotel in February 2016 and gunned down gangster David Byrne.

There have been 18 killings linked to the Kinahan/Hutch feud while gardai have also put a number of gangsters behind bars over crimes connected to the gangland war.

And Fitzgerald said dozens of lives have been saved since by the gardai.

ERU CREATED

She added: “We immediately set up the Emergency Response Unit – the ERU.

“Norin O’Sullivan (former Commissioner) was very clear at the time that this was very serious.

“They had a lot of data on gun crime and gangland crime. The ERU, which has proved its worth, was set up at that time and that was absolutely needed.”

Speaking in the Dail last month, Minister McEntee said killings in Ireland are “now largely driven by domestic abuse” following a lull in gangland murders.

New stats by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) last month showed that the number of murders here have nearly doubled.

There were 71 killings in the first six months of 2023 compared to the same period last year – an increase of 17 or 31 per cent.

GANGLAND-RELATED KILLINGS DOWN

Murders, which soared from 24 to 47 incidents, contributed to nearly all of this increase.

Despite this rise, no gangland-related killings have been recorded so far this year.

The lull in mob murders is partly as a result of the successful garda operations against gang members involved in the Kinahan/Hutch feud which has seen dozens of people jailed.

And Fitzgerald said those deaths need to be placed “top of the agenda”.

She added: “You only have to look at the number of women murdered by intimate partners and some more randomly, but mostly it’s by partners.