DUBAI,—The United Arab Emirates on Sunday handed alleged Irish crime boss Daniel Kinahan to Irish authorities, according to a joint statement carried by the state news agency WAM.
Dubai authorities detained Kinahan in April 2026. Two years earlier, U.S. officials had named him as one of three men leading the Kinahan Organized Crime Group, placing a $5 million bounty on his capture.
Back in 2021, a lawyer speaking on Kinahan’s behalf told the BBC that his client carried no criminal record and dismissed suggestions that he headed a crime syndicate as untrue.
His transfer came after a Dubai court issued a ruling, with the process grounded in an extradition pact shared between the UAE and Ireland.
WAM cited the joint Emirati-Irish statement as calling Kinahan among the most wanted names tied to organized crime that crosses national borders.
The statement added that Irish authorities had formally sought his transfer over claims linked to running a criminal outfit, along with murder and drug trafficking charges.
A representative for Irish police offered no comment when reached Sunday.
For roughly a decade, Kinahan had lived without concealment in Dubai.
Police intend to take him into custody the moment his flight arrives in Ireland, capping a multi-year probe carried out by the Garda Drugs and Organized Crime Bureau, the Irish Times reported.
The newspaper said prosecutors are expected to pursue a charge against him for running an organized crime operation when he goes before Dublin’s Special Criminal Court that same night.
According to flight tracking data, a jet used by the Irish government reached Dubai on Saturday before heading back to Ireland at 0920 GMT Sunday.
(With files from Reuters)
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