It is expected that 49-year-old D. Kinahan will appear in court later this evening.
The government plane transporting Daniel Kinahan landed at Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel, southwest Dublin. Armed military police officers were on guard at the airport gates.
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A convoy of police cars with tinted windows arrived shortly after at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin, where armed police officers guarded the entrances.
Military personnel are also involved in the security operation in the Irish capital.
Before the extradition, the Irish Prison Service acquired a blast- and bullet-proof van designed for transporting high-risk prisoners.
Journalists, photographers, and television operators from Irish media and some international news organizations gathered at the court, ready to cover the upcoming brief court session.
The most powerful criminal organization
49-year-old Irishman Daniel Kinahan is suspected of leading a group from Dubai that US and European officials associate with major criminal activities, including drug trafficking and money laundering.
D. Kinahan was arrested in Dubai in April after an Irish warrant was issued for “suspected serious organized crime offenses,” and later lost appeals against extradition.
The international group, known as the Kinahan Organized Crime Group (KOCG), is considered the most powerful criminal organization in Ireland, with assets valued by the Irish police at over 1 billion euros.
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D. Kinahan will become the second high-ranking cartel member extradited from Dubai.
Seán McGovern, described by the judge as a “senior cartel lieutenant,” was the first high-ranking associate extradited after his arrest in 2024.
In June, he was sentenced to 24 years in prison in Ireland after pleading guilty to leading organized crime and attempting murder.
The case is related to a long-standing bloody feud between the Kinahan cartel and the rival Hutch gang based in Dublin.
The US government imposed sanctions on D. Kinahan and other family members named as cartel leaders in 2022.
They were identified as leaders of a drug distribution organization operating in Ireland, the UK, and across continental Europe, involved in “money laundering, firearms trafficking, and murders.”
The US Treasury Department stated that D. Kinahan is believed to have managed the cartel’s daily operations; sanctions were also applied to his brother Christopher.
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