The Garda’s discovery of a cocaine mixing plant in Dublin and the Criminal Assets Bureau’s (Cab) successful operation against key Kinahan cartel member, Ross Browning, in the last 48 hours represent proof of the cartel’s resilience and the continuing policing onslaught against them.
It is now 10 months since Christy Kinahan Snr and his sons Daniel and Christopher Jnr – and their inner circle – were sanctioned by American law enforcement and more than four years since the last Kinahan-backed murder in the Republic. Most of their Irish associates are now either in jail or have fled the country. Yet the cartel remains a major challenge for Irish law enforcement and a dominant player in domestic and international drug dealing.
At the High Court on Wednesday, Cab was given permission to sell assets with a combined value of almost €1.5 million owned by Dubliner Browning. Despite Cab’s action against him – and though he also faces gun possession charges in Spain – he remains the main cartel figure in the Republic.
Previously the Kinahans’ Irish business was handled by the Byrne crime group, led by Crumlin man Liam Byrne (42). However, Byrne’s brother, David (33), was shot dead at the Regency Hotel attack in Dublin in 2016 and he was later pursued by CAB.
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Like Browning on Wednesday, Liam Byrne lost his assets to the Bureau in February, 2019, by which time he had already fled to Britain. His departure from the Republic coincided with the jailing of some of the men around him for crimes linked to the Kinahans’ feud with the Hutch faction. As a result, the cartel cut back in Ireland, including its members in prison no longer receiving their monthly retainers. The Kinahans also stopped supplying some of the gangs who made up its Irish customer base.
But over the last 12 months, a Kinahan rebuild in the Republic has been under way, with Browning as an important manager. Rather than having a major operation like the Byrne group handling all its Irish business, it has turned to a franchise model. The men running the cocaine hub discovered near the Long Mile Road in Dublin on Tuesday are one such franchisee group.
Under the new franchise system, the cartel has recruited different groups of men; some Irish, others foreign nationals. The franchisees are a mix of men who have some previous convictions and others who were completely unknown to the Garda. Those groups have taken receipt of the Kinahans’ drugs when they entered the state. They have processed the cocaine – mixing the drug with bulking agents to increase their value – before repressing the cocaine into new bales and delivering them to gangs around the country.
In a number of major Garda operations over the last year, gardaí have discovered cocaine processing plants able to handle consignments of the drug worth €10 million or more. Specific details of those franchisees cannot be set out at this time due to legal reasons. However, they have operated from industrial units – purporting to be legitimate businesses – just like that discovered in Dublin on Tuesday.
These franchisees are not cartel members. Instead, they have agreed to take on what are effectively logistical contracts being offered by the Kinahans. By working those contracts, they keep the flow of drugs going in the Republic for the Kinahans, with the proceeds flowing back out of the State to the cartel leaders in the Middle East.
The Kinahans’ former Irish infrastructure and workforce has been wiped out by the intense policing operation in the seven years since the Regency Hotel attack. Furthermore, American law enforcement has offered rewards of $5 million for evidence leading to the capture and conviction of any of the three Kinahans.
But Kinahan Snr and his two eldest sons have not become the most successful crime group ever to emerge from Ireland for nothing. The skills that saw them rise to the top of the ruthless drugs trade now make them a resilient enemy, even in the face of a major international law enforcement onslaught against them led by the Americans.