A senior MTK boxing coach who came out in support of sanctioned Daniel Kinahan once partied with the cartel leader’s most senior associates.
Danny Vaughan posted a tweet on Friday night with a photo of Kinahan as part of a “top team” for boxer Sunny Edwards, adding the hashtag “loyalty”. Edwards has been advised by Kinahan in the past.
It came just a day after MTK claimed that Kinahan is no longer part of the sports management firm.
Read More: UFC star thanks Daniel Kinahan days after US offered $5m for alleged mobster
The Irish Mirror’s exclusive picture reveals how Vaughan enjoyed a boozy session with senior Kinahan cartel members in December 2016.
Our snap shows the Head Coach at MTK Global Vaughan with Liam Byrne, Sean McGovern and Anthony McEnroe, who are all senior players in the gang.
In the Criminal Assets Bureau’s case against Byrne, investigators identified the Dubliner as controlling the Irish branch of the Kinahan cartel.
They said he is a “trusted associate and lieutenant” of Kinahan before seizing his plush Dublin home.
McGovern, along with Kinahan, was also sanctioned by the US Government this week.
It said: “McGovern is Daniel Kinahan’s advisor and closest confidant, and evidence indicates that all dealings with Daniel Kinahan go through Sean McGovern. Sean McGovern also has managed communications on behalf of Daniel Kinahan, and he sells multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine.”
Gardai also issued a European Arrest Warrant for the 36-year-old gangster, who is based in Dubai, who they say is wanted for murder and for directing and participating in a criminal organisation.
McGovern is a person of interest in the December 2016 killing of Noel “Duck Egg” Kirwan.
McEnroe was named by CAB in submissions to the High Court in the case against Byrne as a “trusted member” and being at the “top tier” of the Irish branch’s cartel gang.
McEnroe is a convicted drug trafficker and is the brother of Byrne’s partner Simoan.
Also pictured is Liam Byrne’s son Lee Byrne, who has no criminal convictions.
Beside Byrne Jnr is Crumlin native Lee Gibson who was described in court by the Criminal Assets Bureau as a “foot soldier” for Liam Byrne’s gang.
The picture was taken in December 2016, just months after Byrne’s brother David was blasted to death when Hutch gunmen stormed the Regency Hotel weigh-in, an attack which gardai believed was targeting Kinahan.
Mr Vaughan has been a long-time defender of Kinahan, posting on social media in 2020 that he was “proud to be a very good friend” of his.
The top coach was previously jailed for 10 months in the UK when he was found to have profited from a benefits swindle to the tune of £125,000.
He is married to Sandra Vaughan, the former CEO of MTK, whose ex partner is a former senior member of the cartel and convicted drug dealer Kevin Kelly.
In June 2020 she left her role with MTK Global.
Mrs Vaughan was pictured last month alongside Kinahan and as they met with Rai Taimoor Khan Bhatti, the Provincial Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs Government of Punjab in Pakistan, in Dubai.
There is no suggestion that Mr Vaughan or Mrs Vaughan are involved in crime.
Kinahan founded MTK Global, formerly MGM, in 2012 in Spain - where he lived at the time - with ex-pro puncher Matthew Macklin, who has no involvement in crime.
The now-sanctioned Kinahan and the company claim they parted ways in 2017 but he remained advising many of their fighters who publicly defended him. MTK was based in Marbella but later moved to Dubai, where Kinahan fled in 2017.
MTK released a statement on Thursday again claiming the drug baron stepped away five years ago and stating he will have no involvement in its future dealings.
But in an interview with the Irish Mirror over the weekend, US boxing promoter Bob Arum said he is “a hundred per cent” still running the organisation.
Kinahan was sanctioned last week by the US government who placed a $5million bounty on his head.
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