Suspected Irish crime gang boss Daniel Kinahan landed in Dublin ahead of his appearance at the city’s special criminal court after being extradited from the UAE.
An Irish government jet carrying Kinahan landed at the Casement aerodrome in Baldonnel on the outskirts of Dublin just after 6.30pm on Sunday, with a large security operation already underway on the ground.
Irish police confirmed a man in his late 40s had been arrested and charged in relation to serious organised crime offences after the jet touched down.
A convoy of vehicles left the aerodrome just after 7pm and arrived at the court around 7.20pm, ahead of the hearing.
Kinahan, 49, was not represented by a lawyer during the brief hearing before three judges, where he appeared in the dock wearing a black hoodie and put on a pair of dark-rimmed glasses after sitting down.
He was charged with directing the activities of a criminal organisation between 18 October 2015 and 6 April 2017.
Kinahan was remanded in custody and taken to Portlaoise Prison, to next appear in court on 5 October either in person or via video link.
A large security operation was in place ahead of the arrival, including snipers on roofs, bomb-proof vans for transportation, decoys and signal jammers, according to The Times.
Irish foreign affairs minister Helen McEntee described the extradition as “the culmination of years of determined work ... to ensure that those suspected of serious and organised crime cannot evade the Irish justice system”.
Reacting to news of his planned extradition, Kinahan said earlier that he was “looking forward to getting back home”.
The extradition, reported by UAE state media on Sunday, comes after several months of preparation in what is said to be one of the biggest security operations the Irish government has ever launched, following the arrest of the Dublin boxing promoter in April.
An Irish government jet took off from Casement aerodrome in Baldonnel on the outskirts of Dublin on Saturday morning. It departed for Ireland at 9.20am GMT on Sunday, flight tracking data showed.
Kinahan, who has lived openly in Dubai for 10 years, spoke about the process on Saturday, leaving a voice message shared on Instagram by podcaster James English, in which he said he was “looking forward to getting back home”.
He said: “The security is going to be crazy. I am sitting here reflecting a little.
“Then I’m thinking of what happened, how I got here, all the stuff that’s happened in my life, the whole lot, just reflecting. It’s like bittersweet. It’s going to be nice to get back.
“I was always proud to be Irish. I wanted to do good things and big things but obviously life didn’t go that way for me with all the stuff and all the media, what people think of me you know and the perception they have of me, but I am still so proud to be from Ireland.
“I’m looking forward to getting back home.”
In 2016, an attempt was made on Kinahan’s life at a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel in Dublin.
After that, he left Ireland, first to go to the Costa Del Sol in Spain and later settling in Dubai for the past decade.
The Kinahan cartel was involved in a feud with the rival Hutch crime gang in Ireland, which began in 2015 and resulted in 18 deaths.
A lawyer for Kinahan told the BBC in 2021 that he has no criminal record or convictions and allegations about being a crime boss were false.
