A large house in south Dublin valued in excess of €1.5 million during the property boom is being investigated by the Criminal Assets Bureau in a bid to determine who the beneficial owner is.
The inquiry is linked to the Kinahan cartel as gardaí believe the house has been used by a close associate of Dubai-based gang leader Daniel Kinahan.
Gardaí suspect the man, originally from west Dublin, has been living at the house from which he has been running a sports promotions business on behalf of Kinahan.
The property in Saggart was on Thursday searched by officers from the bureau, who took away two Breitling designer watches on suspicion they represented the proceeds of crime.
Cab used the Garda’s Dublin-based Armed Support Unit for back-up when it called to the house yesterday morning. The search of the property, which has a complex ownership history, was carried out as part of Cab’s efforts to determine who the house’s beneficial owner is.
“The Criminal Assets Bureau is also conducting inquiries at a number of other locations in the Dublin area relating to the purchase of property,” the bureau said in a statement.
Computers seized
As well as the watches, Cab officers also seized documentation, mobile phones, computers and hard drives, which are being examined.
“The search is part of an ongoing operation targeting the activities of the Kinahan organised crime group and assets deriving from the proceeds of crime.”
As well as the watches and documents and electronic devices seized during the operation, a number of people at the house when the Cab search was undertaken were also interviewed. However, they were not arrested as the inquiry relates only to the house rather than the people present.
Gardaí are working on theory that a man who claims to be a lifelong friend of Daniel Kinahan has been residing there of late. And they suspect he has been running a lucrative sports promotion company from the house on behalf of Daniel Kinahan.
That promotion company has significant interests in top-flight domestic and international sport.
Daniel Kinahan is a son of Dubliner Christy Kinahan snr, the veteran criminal who emigrated from the Republic on his release from prison for cheque fraud almost 20 years ago to southern Spain.
Kinahan snr built a drugs wholesale business from southern Spain, which Cab has previously told the High Court is now run by his adult sons Daniel and Christopher jnr.
Move to Dubai
When the Kinahan-Hutch feud intensified in 2016 the Kinahans left Spain for Dubai as they feared for their safety and sought to frustrate investigations by the Irish and Spanish authorities into their drug dealing.
The feud, which has cost 18 lives to date, began when Dublin criminal Gary Hutch tried to murder Daniel Kinahan in Spain in 2015 but botched the shooting. Hutch (35) was later shot dead in Spain in September 2015, in revenge. His was the first feud murder.
Daniel Kinahan and the men who formerly ran his Dublin drug wholesale operation, cousins Liam Byrne and Freddie Thompson, began feuding with Gerry Hutch after the Gary Hutch killing, according to Cab affidavits to the High Court.
