Gardaí hopeful of agreement with UAE on Kinahan extradition within weeks

Gardaí are confident that the Director of Public Prosecutions will recommend charges be issued against the Kinahans, including Daniel Kinahan, above.

Gardaí hope to have an agreement with the United Arab Emirates in place within weeks to extradite the Kinahans from Dubai to stand trial.

They are increasingly confident that the Director of Public Prosecutions will recommend charges be issued against Christy Kinahan senior and his sons Daniel and Christopher Junior for crimes committed in the Republic.

It is understood that DPP lawyers, including a senior counsel, are going through the extensive Garda file against the leadership of the drugs cartel with a fine-tooth comb.

They want to make sure that whatever charges are brought against the trio will stick.

But they also want to show the UAE that the alleged offences are serious and that justice must be served.

A senior Garda source said: "The DPP has had the Kinahan file for many months now. A decision will be made shortly.

"The first step in the process is to issue the charges against them and then go to Dubai with the warrants and formally seek their extradition.

"We cannot do that unless we have an agreement beforehand with the authorities in Dubai and that is what we are finalising at the moment.

"The UAE is fully aware of the crimes we are talking about and hopefully we will have any extradition issues sorted out in weeks.

"The DPP is rightfully taking their time on this case because we all want to make sure that everything is right. But the first step in the whole process is to issue the charges against them."

Drug dealing

It is believed whatever charges are brought will relate to the Kinahans' drug dealing activities in Ireland plus the Kinahan-Hutch feud which left 18 people dead.

Gardaí say all the men are still holding out in Dubai and have been unable to escape so far.

They are being watched around the clock by a combined group of international law enforcement agencies, including the Americans which has put up a €5 million reward on each of them for any information that would lead to their arrest.

The Garda source said: "Their world is now very small. There are only a handful of places that they can move to.

"But as soon as they try to leave Dubai we will be all over them.

"Just look what happened to their associate and right hand man Liam Byrne. He decided to leave Dubai to go to Mallorca last June but he was arrested there within days and then eventually extradited back to Britain where he is now charged with firearms offences.

"We are slowly but surely moving in on them and they know it.

"They know if they move, we will know where they are going. The days of the Kinahans being above the law are coming to an end.

"There is a long list of countries who want to get their hands on them."

It is believed Christy Kinahan Snr has been trying to do a deal with both the Russians and Iran to get them out of Dubai.