Gardaí 'in the process of dismantling' Kinahan cartel

Assistant Commissioner John O'Driscoll rejected claims by the Kinahan gang that evidence given in court against the cartel is all 'opinion'

Assistant Commissioner John O'Driscoll said he would leave it to the courts to decide if there was any truth in the claim by Daniel Kinahan that he would not get a fair trial if he back home. Picture: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie

The Garda’s top gangland investigator has rejected claims from the head of the Kinahan crime cartel that Garda evidence given in courts against cartel associates is all “opinion”.

Assistant Commissioner John O’Driscoll said individuals can have opinions on Garda evidence but that it was what “the courts concludes that counts”.

The head of the Garda’s Organised and Serious Crime unit pointed out that in case after case the courts had accepted Garda expert opinion as evidence – evidence often “uncontroverted” by defence.

He also said he would leave it to the courts to decide if there was any truth in the claim by Daniel Kinahan that he would not get a fair trial if he back home.

Daniel Kinahan, which the highest courts have heard is the operational head of the cartel, issued a statement in the last week making the claims.

Mr O’Driscoll said the courts had repeatedly accepted Garda expert opinion as evidence, as laid out in legislation.

“We let the courts speak,” said the Garda chief. “We offer our evidence to the courts and the court may accept or reject and that is what it said in that one case alone.” 

Individuals can have a view on our evidence but in any event it is what the court concludes that counts in a democracy.” 

On claims from Kinahan that he would not get a fair trial, Mr O’Driscoll said he would not comment on a particular person, but said such a matter would be decided first by the DPP and then by the courts.

He accepted that five years on since the infamous Regency Hotel attack – which prompted the murderous Kinahan revenge campaign against the Hutch gang – that the Kinahan cartel was not dismantled.

“That is true, we are in the process of dismantling,” he said.

He said this was done through the mass convictions they had secured in the courts and the ongoing seizures of drugs, firearms and cash associated with the cartel.

He said efforts were continuing to secure charges against the leadership of the cartel, based in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

He said their work “will give rise to prosecutions in the future” and believed that the assistance of foreign law enforcement “will be fruitful”.

On reports that Dubai police were not assisting, he declined to be specific, but added: “I have no reason to believe that we are not going to receive assistance from any particular jurisdiction at this time.” 

Asked would there be any prosecutions for the Regency attack, he said: “Certainly, there is the prospect of prosecutions”.