The lawyer suing mob boss Daniel Kinahan has jetted into Ireland, where he talked with feud victim Michael Barr’s father.
Colin Barr, whose son was brutally murdered on the orders of the Kinahan cartel, met with top US lawyer Eric Montalvo in Dublin over the weekend.
Mr Barr said: “He was shocked to hear how we were all affected. I told him that just as Michael was killed, the family was killed that day too.
“He got a proper insight into the grief a family suffers, and that’s all families regardless. We just happen to be one of them.”
READ MORE: Inside Kinahan cartel's extensive Dubai property portfolio including flagship pad in skyscraper
Mr Montalvo said he was meeting with the families to establish a relationship and that this wasn’t just going to be about money.
He added: “I don’t just talk about things, I do them. So we’ve opened this door and now we’ve got to commit our resources to it.
“This is going to take time. So this isn’t just a get rich quick kind of thing.
“We will put together a structure and all of that with our stakeholders and start figuring out the details.
“So this at the moment is about starting the conversation at this point.”
Mr Barr also hit out at the Kinahan mob’s hierarchy, saying he hopes they are now “squirming” in their Dubai bolthole after crippling sanctions were imposed on them by the US and UAE governments. Mr Montalvo’s client, boxing manager Moses Heredia, hopes to give some of the potentially $20million he is seeking in damages from Kinahan in a major US civil case to grieving feud victim’s families.
And now the lawyer, who is a former marine, has personally flown into Dublin over the weekend to make contact with various families to gain a better insight into what they have suffered.
Republican Michael Barr, 35, the manager of the Sunset House in Dublin’s north inner city, was shot and killed by a masked gunman at the pub on April 24, 2016, becoming one of 18 victims in the bloody Kinahan Hutch feud.
And speaking last night, his father said the most important thing for him was the lawyer got a better understanding of the pain he has suffered.
Mr Barr said: “I was delighted to meet him. We were put at ease and we gave him our 100% support.
“He knows now when somebody in a family becomes a victim, what it’s really all about – the pain, the hurt and the destruction, the family relationships breaks down, everything.”
He added he knows how many families impacted by the feud now live in fear but he looks forward to the day that he believes mob boss Daniel Kinahan will sit in an American jail cell.
He said: “I can’t wait to see Kinahan behind bars in America. It’s not about the money it doesn’t matter, it’s just about knowing that these c***s are sitting in Dubai squirming not knowing what’s going to happen.
“And if they get into the American prison system, they ain’t coming out.”
Mr Barr’s comments come after the US government announced a major $5million bounty for information on Daniel, Christy and Christopher Kinahan that could lead to their arrest and prosecution.
Kinahan, 44, and other cartel leaders could end up serving jail time in an American supermax prison.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said the US and other nations were working with gardai to nail the mob – and that meant the leaders could be prosecuted outside Ireland.
Almost a month after he unveiled a worldwide crackdown on the cartel, he said: “Why we’ve engaged with so many international partners is to give us every chance to bring a prosecution, either here in Ireland, or in Europe, or indeed in the US.” It had been thought that Irish authorities wanted the trio – all holed up in the desert state of Dubai – extradited back home, but Mr Harris said the case could be held in any country.
He added: “Our investigation now is focused on bringing people to justice. Whether we do that here in Ireland or another jurisdiction brings them to justice, and brings them before the courts, we have to see.”
And, although he said he did not wish to speculate on which country would be best suited to mount the prosecution against the trio, sources confirmed the most likely destination was the US.
That, they said, would see the Kinahans suffer the same fate as Mexican drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, currently serving life plus 30 years in a supermax federal high security prison after a mammoth trial in New York in 2019.
The trial was held there even though his crimes were committed in his native Mexico.
Boxing manager Moses Heredia is suing Kinahan and boxing firm MTK Global over claims they “stole” his fighter Joseph Diaz, breaching his contract with them by offering him more money.
Through Mr Montalvo, Heredia is also pursuing RICO charges against Kinahan, claiming he breached the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act by using money derived from organised crime activity.
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