This text is the results of a collaboration with The Sunday Occasions. You could find their corresponding piece right here.
Kinahan cartel leaders Daniel and Christy Kinahan have been photographed in Dubai, marking the newest sighting of the wished crime bosses for the reason that US authorities put multi-million greenback bounties on their heads.
The footage was captured simply weeks after Kinahan cartel lieutenant Sean McGovern was extradited from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Eire, the place he was charged with homicide and directing the actions of a felony organisation.
Filmed throughout a combined martial arts (MMA) occasion in June, the photographs are the primary visible proof that the drug cartel’s management — who fled from Spain to Dubai in 2016 — had been nonetheless in hiding within the desert metropolis as lately as final summer season.
Christy Kinahan, 68, and his two sons, Daniel, 48, and Christopher Jr, 45 — probably the most senior members of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group — are wished by authorities around the globe. The three Irishmen have been sanctioned by the US authorities and are the topic of a collective $15 million reward for info resulting in their arrest.
Bellingcat and The Sunday Occasions have beforehand revealed how Christy Kinahan left a path of Google opinions exposing his actions and journey companions over a 5 yr interval. We additionally uncovered the gang’s hyperlinks to a German businessman charged with trafficking cocaine in 2024, and to an Australian pilot who was killed throughout a failed drug run in South America final yr.
Bellingcat found this new footage of the narco-traffickers after working a photograph posted to social media of one in every of Daniel Kinahan’s grownup sons — whose title was revealed final yr — by means of face recognition search engine PimEyes.
It returned knowledgeable {photograph} of Daniel Kinahan that was taken throughout the 971 Preventing Championship (971 FC) on the Coca-Cola Area in Dubai’s Metropolis Stroll district on June 14, 2025.
Pictured sporting a black prime, baseball cap and glasses, he’s sitting ringside subsequent to the occasion’s founder and former Final Preventing Championship (UFC) athlete, Mounir “The Sniper” Lazzez.
(The picture, which had been posted to a Dubai images firm’s web site, was eliminated yesterday, hours after Bellingcat contacted a consultant for the Kinahans to hunt remark.)
A frame-by-frame sweep of official footage and user-generated content material from the world revealed that Christy Kinahan, the founding father of the eponymous drug cartel, was additionally among the many reported 6,000 spectators on the struggle evening.
The elusive crime boss — nicknamed “The Dapper Don” — is seen sporting a Panama hat, blue Polo shirt, white trousers and blue trainers.
These pictures of the cartel leaders are the primary to emerge since Bellingcat revealed the newest identified {photograph} of Christopher Kinahan Jr in 2024, captured throughout a gathering together with his father in a Dubai restaurant the yr earlier than.
The brand new footage of Daniel Kinahan marks the primary time he has been pictured for the reason that US authorities levied sanctions on the transnational organised crime group in April 2022.
The Man within the Panama Hat
The Kinahan cartel is one the world’s most infamous felony organisations. Price an estimated €1.5 billion, it’s concerned in drug trafficking, arms smuggling and cash laundering operations around the globe. Investigators have additionally linked the gang to Iran’s intelligence companies and the Lebanon-based Islamic militant group Hezbollah.
It was reportedly a part of a “Tremendous Cartel”, a felony community that managed a lot of Europe’s cocaine commerce. 5 of the community’s key members have been arrested since 2017, however one — Daniel Kinahan — stays at massive.
Daniel Kinahan, who authorities say is liable for managing the cartel’s huge drug trafficking operations, has been closely concerned in fight sports activities for the reason that early 2010s. He co-founded MTK International, a boxing administration agency that signed high-profile boxers together with former world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.
Kinahan has beforehand been pictured with boxers and at sporting occasions, however there have been no confirmed public sightings of him in years. In 2022, after the US sanctions had been introduced, MTK International shut down. With multi-million greenback bounties on their heads, the Kinahans fled their luxurious Dubai houses and have saved a low profile since.
After discovering the picture of Daniel Kinahan from the 971 Preventing Championship, Bellingcat searched for extra footage to confirm the gangland determine was within the crowd. A number of movies confirmed he was in attendance, seated within the stadium’s VIP part.
Throughout this course of, we additionally recognized a person who strongly resembled his father and the founding father of the medicine cartel, Christy Kinahan.
This man and Daniel Kinahan had been seated at reverse ends of the entrance row, instantly across the eight-sided cage, on white sofas designated for VIPs.
We analysed the official footage from the occasion, a greater than six-hour video from sports activities streaming service TrillerTV. In a lot of the footage through which the person is seen, his hand partially obscures his face.
Nevertheless, it was clear that the person shared lots of the bodily traits of Christy Kinahan, together with an identical construct, facial options, and hair color and size. The official live-stream, in addition to footage posted to social media, confirmed his look was according to that of a person in his late sixties.
The person was additionally sporting a white Panama hat with blue band, a mode the cartel chief has been identified to put on.
Within the picture under, posted to social media six months earlier than the 971 FC occasion, an in depth relative of Christy Kinahan poses with a Panama hat and wrote within the caption that it belonged to him. Bellingcat has not recognized this individual as a result of they don’t have any identified involvement in crime.
Moreover, the individual seated subsequent to the person within the Panama hat all through the struggle evening strongly resembled one in every of Christy Kinahan’s quick members of the family. Bellingcat has not recognized this individual as a result of they don’t have any identified involvement in crime.
Two people seated behind the person additionally carefully resembled people who Bellingcat and its publishing companion The Sunday Occasions have linked to the cartel.
It was subsequently confirmed that the person within the Panama hat was Christy Kinahan. The Sunday Occasions confirmed his identification with three sources who both knew the cartel chief personally or have investigated his actions.
Struggle Evening, Acquainted Faces
Christy Kinahan has served jail time in Eire, the Netherlands and Belgium however has evaded seize for greater than a decade. He has acquired anti-surveillance coaching to hide his identification and keep away from drawing consideration and, lately, used aliases to fly beneath the radar.
However Kinahan is seen all through your entire live-stream of the 971 Preventing Championship — including as much as the longest identified footage of the cartel chief that has ever been made public.
The Sunday Occasions studies at this time that his presence at a excessive profile occasion that live-streamed on-line was uncharacteristic for a felony who has made a profession of escaping detection.
“His look within the open, seated in such a public place, is all of the extra exceptional as a result of it’s so seemingly to attract consideration, a stark departure for Kinahan, who usually operates like a ghost,” it mentioned.
Bellingcat’s evaluation confirmed that Christy Kinahan was in his seat on the very starting of the occasion, when the VIP space was virtually solely empty, and stayed till the tip of the final struggle, greater than six hours later.
He was additionally seen standing, strolling and speaking with different folks throughout the struggle evening. Kinahan was noticed speaking to 971 FC founder Mounir Lazzez, who sat subsequent to him throughout the first spherical of the Junior Karanta vs Oli Thompson bout. At one level, Lazzez tapped Kinahan on the arm.
Daniel Kinahan seems to have spent much less time within the enviornment, and is first seen in his seat virtually 4 hours into the occasion. He’s captured speaking to Lazzez in this picture, taken shortly after Kurdistani fighter Namo Fazil gained his bout.
Daniel Kinahan will not be seen once more after Irish fighter James Gallagher gained his bout an hour later, which is when the skilled picture of Kinahan and Lazzez was taken.
Tunisian-born Lazzez lives in Dubai, the place he’s listed as a part-owner of a fitness center referred to as the 971 MMA & Health Academy. He launched the 971 Preventing Championship in 2024, promising to “change the face” of fight sports activities.
Footage from the first 971 FC occasion, at The Agenda enviornment in Dubai in Might 2024, was not clear sufficient to establish folks within the crowd, however social media posts affirm that a right away relative of Daniel Kinahan’s was current.
Lazzez has publicly backed Daniel Kinahan regardless of the worldwide legislation enforcement efforts to apprehend him. In April 2022, days after the sanctions towards the cartel had been introduced, he thanked Kinahan in a post-fight speech and subsequent media interview in Las Vegas. Lazzez has spoken about their relationship on a number of events, together with describing Kinahan as a “good pal, brother and advisor”.
Bellingcat contacted Mounir Lazzez by telephone, e-mail and social media however didn’t obtain a response.
Bellingcat additionally recognized the folks sitting on both facet of Daniel Kinahan when the skilled {photograph} was taken. They’re a person and a girl who had been each concerned behind the scenes at 971 FC.
The person, who has beforehand labored in boxing promotion, had a senior function on the Coca-Cola Area in June final yr, together with throughout the struggle evening, in line with his LinkedIn profile.
The lady, who lists her most up-to-date employment as an MMA occasion coordinator, appeared in footage posted to 971 FC’s social media that described her as being a part of the manufacturing group. She is tagged in a number of posts in regards to the occasion, together with from an MMA fighter who participated on the evening. The lady can be seen hugging Daniel Kinahan, speaking to his grownup son and sitting subsequent to Mounir Lazzez.
Because of this Kinahan, as soon as a “main participant” within the fight sports activities enterprise, was surrounded by the 971 FC founder and two individuals who labored on the occasion.
The person and girl didn’t reply to Bellingcat’s questions. There isn’t a suggestion they’re concerned in any felony exercise.
No clear footage of the youthful Kinahan assembly together with his father was recognized on the 971 FC occasion. Nevertheless, throughout a mid-event efficiency by American rapper Lloyd Banks, shortly after the skilled picture was taken, Daniel Kinahan’s seat was empty and an individual sporting related clothes (gentle colored trousers, a darkish prime and baseball cap) is seen transferring alongside the entrance row, greeting folks, and embracing Christy Kinahan.
The identification of this individual couldn’t be verified as a result of low high quality of the footage.
The Sunday Occasions studies at this time that the Kinahans proceed to get pleasure from a VIP way of life in Dubai regardless of the UAE’s insistence that it has taken motion towards the cartel. “These findings counsel that the imposition of American sanctions has did not considerably weaken the cartel and should, in reality, have made it extra resilient,” it mentioned.
“The Emiratis declare to have frozen €200 million in property throughout UAE-registered companies and mapped the organisation’s entrance firms and proxies; nevertheless, the Kinahans’ continued means to function within the open suggests these enforcement efforts have but to strike a decisive blow.”
An extradition treaty between Eire and the UAE was ratified in 2025, however thus far it has solely been enforced on Kinahan cartel lieutenant Sean McGovern, who was returned on an Irish navy airplane final Might.
In December, Detective Chief Superintendent Séamus Boland, the pinnacle of Eire’s medicine and organised crime bureau, mentioned investigations into the Kinahan cartel had been ongoing and that he hoped 2026 could be a “important yr”.
He was talking forward of the ten yr anniversary of Dublin’s Regency Lodge assault, when a rival gang tried to assassinate Daniel Kinahan at a boxing weigh-in. The assault left Kinahan gang member David Byrne useless and sparked a bloody gangland feud that has resulted in 18 deaths.
Bellingcat contacted a consultant for the Kinahans to hunt remark however didn’t obtain a response.
Connor Plunkett, Peter Barth, Beau Donelly and John Mooney contributed to this text.
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