A key sidekick to Daniel Kinahan helped launder up to €350,000 in drug profits every day for 18 months, Spanish cops have claimed.
They estimated yesterday that Irish citizen Johnny Morrissey’s scam saw him wash up to €200million for Kinahan, 45, in an 18-month period. Detectives claim they have smashed the most important international criminal organisation in Spain specialising in cleaning dirty cash.
And in a fascinating insight into the drugs cartel led by Daniel Kinahan, his father Christy, 64, and brother Christopher, 41, Spanish detectives revealed they believed the cash had not been physically moved out of Spain.
Read more: Kinahan cartel flew millions of cocaine into Ireland on private plane
They claimed it was spread throughout the world using an ancient money transfer system called Hawala.
The informal method of moving money, originating from an Arabic term for transfer or trust and involving a network of brokers, is known to have been adopted by criminal gangs who use code numbers or tokens like banknotes torn in half to prove cash is due.
A Spanish police spokesman said: “The Civil Guard, through an operation dubbed Whitewall, has smashed the most important international criminal organisation that operated in Spain dedicated to money laundering.
“In a little over a year and a half they could have laundered more than €200million through the system known as Hawala.”
Morrissey’s wife Nicola is the CEO of a Glasgow-based vodka firm called Nero Drinks which police say was used as a front. She was also held during the raid in Spain, although she was released after a court appearance.
She is thought to have been freed on bail and remains under investigation although officials could not be reached yesterday morning for comment.
The pair were pictured in handcuffs after their detentions, with Morrissey trying to cover his face and Nicola raising her middle finger to photographers as she was led away.
Officers from the Garda, Britain’s National Crime Agency, Europe and the US DEA law enforcement agency, took part in the operation.
Spanish detectives said the starting point for the probe had been the seizure at the start of last year of 200kg of cocaine worth €14million and nearly €500,000 in cash hidden in vehicles with “sophisticated concealment systems”.
One of the alleged members of the criminal organisation smashed by police ran a second-hand car dealership.
Nearly a dozen searches of residential and business premises took place in Spain as well as Britain, including two places in Glasgow thought to be related to Nero Drinks, and one in Heywood in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.
There were no arrests in the UK.
Read more: Garda struck in the face by 'aggressive' man who 'resisted arrest' in Bray
Referring to Morrissey, although he wasn’t named in a Spanish police statement about the operation, the Civil Guard said: “The main target in Spain devoted himself to collecting large amounts of money in cash from criminal organisations operating in our country and handing it through the Hawala system to organised criminal groups in other countries and vice-versa.
“Investigators were able to corroborate that during the time the investigation lasted, he allegedly managed to transfer more than €200million.”
Outlining the role Nero Drinks played, the Civil Guard said in a statement: “The principal members of the organisation in Spain allegedly created a luxury vodka brand promoted at shows, parties and events at nightclubs and restaurants in luxury Costa del Sol environments, presenting it as a successful drinks brand.
“This couldn’t be further from reality because according to information from tax authorities, it couldn’t be funding the lifestyle of the people arrested.
“Similarly they allegedly created another firm in the UK which was dependent on another company created in Gibraltar, with the aim of hiding the true identity of the directors of the firms that were used to launder the money coming from Hawala.”
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