Daniel Joseph Kinahan, an Irish fugitive suspected of drug trafficking and money laundering, was arrested in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday, authorities said, ending a years-long hunt for an alleged boss of one of the world’s most notorious cartels.
Kinahan — one of the world’s most wanted men — was arrested in Dubai in a secret joint operation between Irish and UAE police, and will be extradited to Ireland, the Irish Times reports.
In a statement Friday, Dubai police did not name Kinahan but said they had arrested an Irish fugitive with the initials D.J.K., who was “a member of a gang involved in international criminal offenses in his home country.” The arrest happened within 48 hours of Irish authorities issuing a warrant for his arrest, “following intensive search, investigation, and close surveillance operations,” Dubai police added.
Kinahan is considered one of the leaders of the Kinahan Organized Crime Group, identified by U.S. and Irish authorities as the most powerful cartel in Ireland. Irish courts linked the organization to multiple slayings, as well as money laundering and the trafficking of drugs and firearms throughout Europe.
He was also wanted by U.S. authorities. In 2022, the U.S. Treasury under the Biden administration announced sanctions on several members and associates of the Kinahan cartel, including Daniel Kinahan, who was “believed to run the day-to-day operations of the organization.” Others targeted by sanctions included his father and brother, Christopher Vincent Kinahan Sr. and Christopher Vincent Kinahan Jr. The State Department offered rewards of up to $5 million each for information leading to the arrests of the three Kinahan family members.
U.S. authorities said at the time that they believed the Kinahan family frequently used Dubai as a base for its illegal activities. Two years ago, the investigative journalism group Bellingcat and the Sunday Times were able to establish the whereabouts and travels of the Kinahan patriarch based on years’ worth of Google reviews he had left for hotels and restaurants throughout the world — including in Dubai, near his residence — using the alias “Christopher Vincent.”
The report traced the elder Kinahan to trips to Spain, Hungary, Turkey, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Egypt, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Among the hundreds of reviews seen by Bellingcat, some appeared to show his reflection in windows or mirrors. The email address used for the account, it revealed, was connected to a physical address mentioned in U.S. sanctions documents.
One Dubai establishment reviewed by the elder Kinahan posted its own image on its social media pages that appeared to show a meeting between Kinahan Sr. and Kinahan Jr., Bellingcat reported.
More recently, journalists from Bellingcat and the Sunday Times published photographs of Daniel and his father at a June 2025 mixed martial arts event in Dubai.
Daniel Kinahan, who has denied criminal wrongdoing, was also active as a boxing manager and co-founded the boxing promotion company MTK Global, according to leaked records obtainedby the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and shared with the Irish Times. Other records reviewed by the ICIJ show that Daniel Kinahan and Kinahan Jr. established several companies in the UAE, including management and aviation consultancies in the country’s free zones, regions with business-friendly tax benefits.
MTK Global shut down in 2022 after the United States announced sanctions against Daniel Kinahan, and several promoters cut ties with the company.
“There is no evidence or proof against me. I have said repeatedly: I have no criminal record anywhere in the world,” Daniel Kinahan told talkSPORT in 2021. “Sections of the media ask that I disprove a negative. This is impossible, but it shows what I’m up against.”
Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.
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