MOB boss Daniel Kinahan’s drug trafficking operations are at risk of imploding as law enforcement cracks down on his business partners.
The Irish Mirror has learned that one of Kinahan’s two main contacts in Europe, the head of a Serbian gang, has gone to ground in recent weeks.
The mobster attended Kinahan’s 2017 wedding at the luxury Burj al Arab in Dubai but is now on the run from authorities.
Kinahan has worked closely with this criminal and another Albanian national to ensure his cocaine, shipped from South America, is taken care of when it lands in the EU.
The Irish drug lord's two associates liaise with other gangs to ensure it gets through ports before it goes on to the UK, Ireland and elsewhere.
Dubliner Kinahan had a $5million bounty put on his head and was hit with sanctions by the US Government, along with his father Christy Snr and brother Christy Jnr. The UAE froze the mob’s assets this week.
While the most wanted fugitives in the world lie low in their Dubai bolthole as they navigate their next move, we can also reveal how their cocaine supplies have been hit by major issues in recent months.
Daniel, 44, had built a relationship with Dairo Antonio Usuga, better known as Otoniel, and his Gulf Clan cartel in Colombia, who was the cartel’s main supplier of narcotics from South America.
But Otoniel, who had replaced drug baron Pablo Escobar, was arrested late last year following a seven-year manhunt and the Colombian Supreme Court has now approved the thug’s extradition to the US where he will face drug trafficking charges.
A source told the Mirror: “The arrest of Otoniel and the focus it has brought in Colombia has disrupted supply in a huge way in recent months.
“That arrest was big, especially in the Irish context as the Kinahans were being mainly supplied by this guy’s gang.
“You also have one of Daniel Kinahan’s main partners now on the run in Europe.
“So on one hand, you are seeing this collapse of the Kinahan gang in a very public way with government announcements, seizure of assets, wiped out in boxing, but the main business is under serious pressure too.”
Irish investigators are working closely with Colombian authorities along with British and American drug enforcement officers. A senior Garda liasion officer is also based there.
Sources also told the Mirror last night that the writing was on the wall for the Kinahan cartel after the appointment of a United Arab Emirates official to president of the global police agency Interpol.
Ahmed Nasser al-Raisi, inspector general of the UAE’s interior ministry, is serving a four-year term after landing the role in November.
International law enforcement have found that there has been great co-operation with Dubai recently which can be seen with the move of freezing the Kinahan gang’s assets.
Another source explained: “There was no way al-Raisi could be in that role and not clean up his own patch. He simply could not let the Kinahans run riot on his patch while holding such a position.”
Sources believe that it will lead to the mob fleeing the UAE within days or their arrest. Gardai are also receiving assistance following the US stumping up the $5million reward to lead to the destruction of the mob.
Speaking this week, a Garda spokesman said: “An Garda Siochana continues to work with our partners at an international level to ensure we achieve the objective of dismantling the Kinahan organised crime group.
“The announcements made at City Hall last week have generated additional avenues to pursue, and give us confidence we will achieve our objectives.”
The Kinahan cartel has continued to crumble at lightning speed. Daniel was publicly given the boot from professional boxing. And the outfit he founded, MTK Global, sensationally threw in the towel earlier this week.
