Alleged Irish crime boss Daniel Kinahan is arrested in Dubai

LONDON (AP) — Daniel Kinahan, the alleged leader of one of Ireland’s biggest criminal networks, has been arrested in Dubai, Irish media reported Friday.

Ireland’s national police force, the Garda Síochána, said an Irish man in his late 40s was arrested on Wednesday under a warrant from Irish courts over alleged serious organized crime offenses.

The force said it was “steadfast in our determination that we would pursue those allegedly involved in serious organized criminal activity, wherever they go.”

Dubai Police said they had arrested an “Irish fugitive for his alleged role in an international organized crime network.”

Police did not identify Kinahan, who is in his late 40s, by name. Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTE, confirmed he was the arrested man.

The High Court in Dublin previously named Kinahan, who lives in the United Arab Emirates, as a senior figure in an organized crime gang involved in international drug trafficking operations and firearm offenses.

A feud between the Kinahan cartel and the rival Hutch gang has been linked to 18 killings in Ireland since 2015. In 2016, David Byrne, an associate of the Kinahan cartel, was shot dead at a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel in Dublin. Authorities believe Kinahan was the intended target.

He later moved to Spain and then Dubai.

Kinahan was one of the founders of boxing management company MTK Global. He has been pictured with then-heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and has attempted to organize fights for him, including a proposed all-British superfight against Anthony Joshua that never materialized.

In 2022 the U.S. offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the “financial destruction” of the Kinahan crime gang or the arrest and conviction of its leaders.