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A NUMBER OF European Arrests Warrants (EAWs) have been issued for senior members of the Kinahan cartel’s leadership, TheJournal.ie has learned.
At least two men, who have been running the cartel’s drug and gun enterprise, have been named on the legal documents and are wanted here for questioning in relation to seven murders and significant drug seizures.
UK police are also helping gardaí track down a number of other senior figures who have fled Ireland in recent months.
The men who have left Ireland are considered as high-ranking members of the Irish Kinahan organised crime gang. While there has been a number of significant arrests and charges in relation to some alleged feud murders, gardaí see the potential arrests of these men as a serious blow to the cartel.
These are the men who order gangland murders and also direct where and when shipments of drugs are to arrive into Ireland. They also then order where drug consignments are to be cut, packaged and eventually distributed across the country.
Gardaí have been working on disrupting the distribution networks of senior Kinahan cartel members for years.
Officers now believe that while the leaders are on the run, the logistics of the drug trafficking will be left to relatively inexperienced members of the gang, increasing the likelihood of intercepting significant quantities of drugs and firearms.
One of the men who is now believed to be hiding out on the Costa Del Sol was present at the Regency Hotel attack last year. While it had been claimed that he fled Ireland due to an imminent threat on his life, it is now more likely he feared he was to be arrested for questioning in relation to at least seven murders.
The news comes as an associate of murdered Kinahan gang leader David Byrne was arrested as gardaí stopped what they believed to be an attempt on the life of a senior member of the Hutch gang.
While carrying out a checkpoint in the North Strand area of the north inner city last week. Gardaí became suspicious of car in the area which was subsequently stopped and searched.
This led to the search of another car nearby from which a handgun was recovered. One of the cars contained balaclavas, a loaded Glock handgun and a container of petrol.
Officers believe the men were targeting a senior member of the Hutch gang who lives nearby as retaliation for the murder of Michael Keogh who was shot dead in his car on Dorset Street earlier this month.
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Running scared? Yeah right, pull the other one.
@Daniel Dunne: I really wish they’d stop calling it a cartel. It’s a gang of murdering thugs. end of
@I Pee Freely: And what way would you describe a cartel?
I have always thought of a cartel as a group of independently run businesses illegally setting an agreed high price for common goods and services between them to the detriment of the consumer and eliminating fair competition?
@Rory Corbett: insurance companies for example.
@Dermot Meehan:
Agreed.
Can they put out an arrest warrant for noiroins “missing” phone?
@John Dman: I’d say they’ll need to get the sub-aqua unit after that one.
@John Considine: or get a warrant and check her handbag ?
Have they tried ringing it, or using find my phone app?
@John Dman: you don’t arrest a missing phone.
Is the Journal trying to elevate these guys to mystical status? Using phrases like “senior “members and “cartel”. Call the what they are. Murderers and thugs.
I thought it said the Lowry cartel, auld eyesight going.but I live with hope.
It’s good to see something being done ..keep the pressure on them ..
About Fu#king time! These Cu#ts don’t own our Commumities, we do! It’s about time we took them back!
You are giving these criminals far too much air time. We don’t want to know anything about them. S–m of the earth.
Christy Kinahan and co are a lot bigger than we think. I think it will be hard to dismantle their network but i will wait and see.
@Cillian Murray: calm down Cillian. Barely any of them even finished school.
Photos and names?
@Gus Sheridan: Why? They’ve not even been arrested yet, much less charged with anything. Why ruin an investigation & chance of prosecution by giving them a chance to claim unfair media coverage?
@Joe Bloggs: nothing to do with being unfair, people of interest to the police are often put up on social media, just look at the FBI most wanted list eg.
Conor McGregor is mates with some of these lovely fellas.
All this garda activity n garda success makes me think wha the fuk were they doin b4 the regency …..fuk all they let um do wha they wanted when they wanted then regency brought it all to front papers so as usual the government re acted…the government dont act in tis country they react ..after an event which is usually too late by then
If every country implemented retinal scans as a security measure at all points of entry into countries these shams would be tracked and caught
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