Poster Boy: Sanctioned Kinahan Cartel Lieutenant Discovered Taking part in Padel in Dubai

Each Friday night, the brochure says, gamers can compete to win money prizes in one of many world’s fastest-growing racquet sports activities. The padel membership in Dubai’s west is the image of contemporary wellness tradition: climate-controlled courts, a personal sauna and ice bathtub, and one-on-one teaching. The promotional picture reveals a bearded man in mid-swing, eyes locked on the ball. He wears matching activewear and a golden tan. The poster boy for padel is a gifted participant who as soon as completed runner-up at a world match. He has additionally spent the previous decade residing within the shadows.

Ian Thomas Dixon is a key determine within the Kinahan cartel, the Irish organised crime group that authorities say has advanced right into a US$1.5 billion transnational community concerned in drug trafficking, cash laundering and arms smuggling. Investigators have linked the cartel to Iran’s intelligence companies and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah. Its feuds with rival gangs have been linked to a minimum of 18 murders throughout 4 nations.

Dixon, 36, together with the Kinahan Organised Crime Group’s senior management – Christy Kinahan, 69, and his sons Daniel, 49, and Christopher Jr, 45 – was sanctioned by the US authorities in 2022. Authorities allege the Irishman acted as a trusted lieutenant to Daniel Kinahan, who is claimed to handle the cartel’s huge drug trafficking operation by serving to transfer bulk money throughout Europe, arranging funds and holding tabs on cash owed by a narco-trafficker.

Bellingcat and The Sunday Occasions can as we speak reveal how Dixon’s racquet sport pastime has left behind a digital path that led to the latest footage of him since these sanctions had been imposed – the primary time he has been pictured publicly in virtually a decade. This investigation additionally uncovers the alias Dixon has utilized in Dubai and exposes the primary open supply hyperlinks to an underworld affiliate who was lately extradited from the Gulf state and jailed in Scotland.

It comes as cartel chief Daniel Kinahan awaits extradition to Eire after his arrest in Dubai on foot of a warrant issued by Irish authorities. The arrest, in April, adopted an in depth policing and diplomatic effort from worldwide regulation enforcement.

In March, investigations by Bellingcat and The Sunday Occasions uncovered the primary pictures of Daniel Kinahan and his father in years and likewise revealed that the cartel’s “pal”, former UFC fighter Mounir Lazzez, was linked to US sanctions in opposition to Iran.

The most recent findings give an unprecedented glimpse into the latest exercise of a key cartel affiliate who, till now, has largely flown below the radar.

Household Ties

When cartel founder Christy Kinahan moved to Spain after his launch from an Irish jail in 2001, it wasn’t lengthy earlier than his new residence turned a hub for the gang. His sons, Daniel and Christopher Jr, quickly adopted him to the Costa del Sol – as did their youthful cousin, Dublin native Ian Dixon.

From the late 2000s onward, Dixon labored for companies linked to the crime household within the south of Spain. One among these was The Auld Dubliner, a pub in Estepona that reportedly served as a base of operations for the cartel. In 2010, the pub was raided and briefly closed by authorities as a part of Operation Shovel, a years-long multi-national police investigation into the cartel’s medication and arms-trafficking actions.

Dixon would additionally work as a coach at MGM Marbella, the boxing fitness center co-founded by Daniel Kinahan that may go on to symbolize a few of the greatest professional boxers on this planet. The corporate, which was renamed MTK World, shut down after the US sanctions on the Kinahans had been imposed in April 2022.

In 2016, Dixon was arrested by Spanish police investigating the homicide of Irish legal Gary Hutch. The earlier 12 months, Hutch had been gunned down whereas out for a morning jog in a gated neighborhood on the Costa del Sol.

Dixon was launched with out cost, and one other Kinahan cartel affiliate was later sentenced to 22 years for his function within the homicide. The killing sparked a feud between the Kinahans and the rival Irish Hutch gang  that resulted in a minimum of 18 deaths. 

Dixon and different key Kinahan members fled to Dubai within the wake of the lethal feud.

Ian Dixon has no recognized convictions. However his alleged function within the Kinahan Organised Crime Group was laid naked when the US sanctioned him. Authorities mentioned Dixon managed funds and moved bulk foreign money for Daniel Kinahan and likewise stored tabs on the debt owed by a narco-trafficker. 

The sanctions discover additionally mentioned Dixon managed Hoopoe Sports activities LLC, a Dubai agency that listed quite a lot of professional boxers amongst its purchasers and reportedly acquired greater than $4 million for bouts involving former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. Boxing promoter Bob Arum instructed Yahoo Sports activities the cash was for consulting charges owed to Daniel Kinahan.

Dixon lived in an unique gated neighborhood in Dubai, based on the 2022 sanctions discover. On-line listings present that properties like his Spanish-inspired villa are value as much as $2.7 million.

Ardour for Padel

Padel is an more and more well-liked racquet sport from Mexico greatest described as a mixture of tennis and squash. In line with the game’s governing physique, it has greater than 17.5 million weekly gamers throughout 150 nations and the UAE, the place Dixon lives, has the second-highest variety of padel courts in Asia. It was on these courts in late 2024 that Dixon performed within the grasp closing of the Asia Pacific Padel Tour (APPT).

APPT rankings present Dixon registered for the match below the identify “Ian Thomas”. Like his cartel chief relative Christy Kinahan, who used his first and center names as an alias on his Google evaluate profile, Dixon had dropped his surname.

Dixon and his doubles accomplice performed 4 video games over the December 13-15 weekend, finally inserting second after shedding within the closing. The Irish cartel affiliate is captured on movie after the match receiving a silver medal and commemorative racquet.

The Asia Pacific Padel Tour was held a month after senior Kinahan cartel determine Sean McGovern was arrested in Dubai on foot of an Interpol crimson discover. McGovern was extradited to Eire final 12 months and earlier this month jailed for twenty-four years for steering the actions of a legal organisation in relation to homicide and tried homicide. 

The match was live-streamed to YouTube through webcams arrange on two courts. Dixon was captured all through the three-day occasion, each enjoying on the courtroom and mingling with others within the background. The hour-long male novice closing, which Dixon misplaced, is viewable in its entirety.

Dixon additionally posed for images in the course of the match, nevertheless it seems he did have some reticence about showing on social media. In two pictures from a special padel occasion hosted on the identical venue a couple of months later, Dixon’s face had been lined. Nonetheless, a 3rd picture was not edited, confirming that it was Ian Dixon.

Kingpin within the Crowd

Among the many folks Dixon was seen with at padel occasions in Dubai was Stephen Jamieson, a Scottish legal who was lately jailed for his function in a multimillion-dollar drug trafficking operation.

Dixon greeted Jamieson with a fist pump in the course of the Dubai APPT match in December 2024 on the day the Irishman performed within the novice closing.

Dixon was additionally pictured with Jamieson at a household day padel occasion simply weeks earlier than the Scottish legal’s arrest. (Bellingcat just isn’t publishing particulars of that occasion to guard the id of members of the family.)

Jamieson, who has a number of convictions, was extradited from Dubai final 12 months and is serving a six-year jail sentence in Scotland on organised crime and drug prices. The case in opposition to him was constructed round intercepted messages he had despatched through the defunct encrypted communication community EncroChat – a community the Kinahans have additionally used – to direct drug shipments.

The Sunday Occasions stories as we speak on the Kinahan cartel’s deeply entrenched hyperlinks to organised crime within the UK, the place it’s recognized to regulate a lot of the illicit drug market. It mentioned the footage displaying that Dixon and Jamieson know one another may point out an underworld connection, since cartel cadres don’t affiliate with rival operations.

Three of the seven alleged key Kinahan cartel figures have been arrested for the reason that US sanctions had been imposed. Johnny Morrissey, arrested in Spain in 2022, was later bailed and topic to a journey ban. Sean McGovern was jailed earlier this month and Daniel Kinahan awaits extradition to Eire after his latest arrest in Dubai. Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly, of Eire’s police pressure, lately mentioned the investigation into the Kinahan cartel was ongoing and that authorities had been persevering with to concentrate on the opposite members of the gang.

Ian Dixon didn’t reply to questions from Bellingcat.

Connor Plunkett, Peter Barth, Beau Donelly and John Mooney contributed to this text. 

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