UAE urged to consider crime boss Kinahan's residency

15/02/16 'Fat' Freddie Thompson and Daniel Kinahan pictured at the funeral of David Byrne who was shot dead in the Regency Hotel attack at St Nicolas of Myra Church,on Francis Street , Dublin after his funeral Mass...Picture Collins Dublin

A Fine Gael TD has written to the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to ask if the Emirati government is aware of crime boss Daniel Kinahan.

Mr Kinahan is currently based in Dubai but a High Court affidavit in Ireland in 2019 from the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) asserted that from there he managed and controlled the day-to-day operations of the Kinahan organised crime gang.

This evidence was accepted by the court though Mr Kinahan has said that is not the case and that he is a legitimate businessman, involved in boxing promotion who has no convictions.

Mr Richmond, however, has said that Mr Kinahan "should not be allowed live a charmed life in exile as the families of his gang’s victims continue to mourn here in Ireland".

The Dublin Rathdown TD has not yet received a response to his letter to Sultan Mohamed Al Ali which says that Mr Kinahan had spent "years coordinating chaos, even death in Dublin" and asked the sultan if he was "happy to allow him to continue his efforts" in the UAE.

Mr Richmond has also submitted a private members motion to the Oireachtas that would see the Government legislate to ring-fence funds seized by state agencies like the CAB and channel them back into targeting the causes of crime at source.

Mr Richmond said that records amounts of cash are being seized and rather than go into the exchequer, should be used for grassroots crime prevention measures like sports and community clubs.

“Cash seized by the gardai is on the rise, from €7.44m in 2019 to over €16m in 2020. In 2021 over €2m was seized in the first month alone.

“It would be brilliant to see this crime cash used for addiction counsellors, social workers, youth diversion programmes, training courses, education schemes, awareness programmes, and more.

“By ring-fencing seized cash we are not only reaffirming our commitment to supporting communities and families who have been devastated by crime, but also protecting generations to come from turning to crime in the first instance."