Kinahan gang key ‘in drugs trade’ in Europe

The Kinahan crime cartel is a key player in the European drugs trade, and their war with the Hutch crime group reflects escalating gang violence in Europe, say EU drugs and police agencies.

In a major report, the agencies said the EU drugs trade is now worth at least €30b a year, up from €24bn in 2016.

They said the cocaine trade is driving the surge and is now worth €9.1bn, at a minimum, compared to €5.7bn in 2016, up 60%.

Irish data on seizures, treatment and drug deaths point to a significant rise in the cocaine trade here.

Michael O’Sullivan, director of the Maritime Analysis Operations Centre Narcotics, an EU drugs task force targeting the Atlantic trade, said that the reported “tsunami” of cocaine heading for Europe “has landed”.

In its EU Drug Market Report 2019, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drugs Addiction and Europol conducted an analysis of drug-related homicide in the EU.

Even though there was a lack of data from many member states, it said some countries were reporting that the violence was becoming “more brutal”.

This was being influenced by more fragmented criminal gangs involving less experienced young men and the reckless use of highly lethal automatic weapons.

The 160-page report said there was “grave concern” in an increase in violence around cocaine importation and referenced the Kinahan-Hutch feud.

“A war between two rival Irish gangs involved in cocaine importation and distribution in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand has led to at least 15 murders, many of them in public places, in Ireland and Spain since 2015,” it said.

It said a service industry seemed to be developing to supply the European cocaine market’s demand for violence, including hitmen.

This was seen in Ireland when the Kinahan cartel hired Estonian hitman Imre Arakas to kill a Hutch figure before he was apprehended here in April 2017.

The report details a case, involving major Moroccan traffickers and their partnership with the Kinahan cartel, who it described as “key players” in the European drugs market.

This Moroccan gang was involved in a feud, which brought a “new level of violence” to Europe. In 2016, the torso of a 23-year-old Moroccan, Nabil Amzieb, was found in a burning car in Amsterdam, while his head was found on a busy street 11km away.

The report said this was “closer to the level of violence seen in countries such as Mexico”. The feud went on to claim 16 lives in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain.

An EU investigation led to the arrest of Richard Eduardo Riquelme Vega in Chile in 2017 after he flew into Santiago from Dubai (the recent base of the Kinahan cartel).

Vega was considered to be “at the top of the gang responsible for the beheading” and the “right-hand man” of Naoufal Fassih.

Fassih was arrested in Dublin in 2016 in a “safe house operated by the Kinahan gang, key players in the drugs trade”.

The report added:

Vega and his Moroccan associates in the Netherlands had become closely involved with the Kinahan gang, illustrating the global interactions between organised crime groups in the drugs trade and the international impact of the market.

In April 2018, after he was extradited from Ireland, Fassih was jailed for 18 years in the Netherlands for paying a gunman to kill a rival.

The report said members of the Kinahan crime group were arrested in Ireland and Australia in 2018 “as part of an investigation into the smuggling of cocaine using air couriers between Ireland, Australia and New Zealand”.

It said the drugs trade had a deep impact on society and many communities in Ireland had been “severely affected” by drug-related violence and intimidation.