D-DAY IN LAWSUIT
US lawyer’s green light to bring evidence to court by March 17 ‘Significant’ move hailed as cartel boss faces paying millions
that the judge will soon rule the same and allow Mr Montalvo to seek discovery to support a default judgment against him personally too.
Leaked documents last year revealed that Kinahan was the registered owner of the same Dubaibased office that MTK Global operated from.
That was in spite of the fact that the firm repeatedly claimed it had distanced itself from Kinahan, who co-founded the company back in 2012.
The company ceased trading shortly after the US Treasury Department announced the unprecedented sanctions against Kinahan, his father and brother — and issued a $15M (€13.7m) reward for information that would lead to their prosecution.
Mr Montalvo’s client Mr Heredia is suing Kinahan and MTK Global over the alleged poaching of boxer JoJo
Diaz. Mr Montalvo is also pursuing Rico charges against Kinahan — claiming he breached the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations (Rico) Act by using money derived from organised crime activity.
Last year this paper revealed how Mr Montalvo personally visited Ireland and met with Colin Barr — the father of Kinahan Hutch feud victim Michael Barr.
Orders
Colin, whose son was brutally murdered on the orders of the Kinahan cartel, gave the top lawyer an insight into the grief he and his family have suffered at the hands of the mob.
“He was shocked to hear how we were all affected. I told him that just as Michael was killed, the family was killed that day too.
“He got a proper insight into the grief a family suffers, and that’s all families regardless. We just happen to be one of them,” Mr Barr told this paper.
Republican Michael Barr (35), the manager of the Sunset House in Dublin’s north inner city, was shot and killed by a masked gunman at the pub on April 24, 2016 — and became one of 18 victims in the bloody Kinahan-Hutch feud.
Kinahan and other cartel leaders could end up serving jail time in an American supermax prison — following comments made by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris in April of last year.
Mr Harris said the United States and other nations were working with gardai to nail the Kinahan mob – and that meant the leaders could be prosecuted outside Ireland.
“Why we’ve engaged with so many international partners is to give us every chance to bring a prosecution, either here in Ireland, or in Europe, or indeed in the US,” the Commissioner said – almost a month after he unveiled worldwide crackdown on the cartel led by Kinahan (44).
Justice
“Our investigation now is focused on bringing people to justice. The object is to bring those gang members and the leaders of those gangs to justice.
“Whether we do that here in Ireland or in another jurisdiction brings them to justice, and brings them before the courts, we have to see,” he said.
And, although he said he did not wish to speculate on which country would be best suited to mount the prosecution against the trio, sources confirmed to The Star that their most likely destination was America.
That, they said, would see the Kinahans
suffer the same fate as Mexican drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman – currently serving life plus 30 years in a supermax federal high security prison after a mammoth trial in New York in 2019.
The trial was held there even though his crimes were committed in his native Mexico and sources said the same fate awaited the Kinahan gangsters.
The US Treasury Department has officially designated the Kinahan mob as a “transnational criminal organisation” which it said was dealing in narcotics, money laundering, firearms trafficking and murder.
Anyone with information on the Kinahans has been asked to contact the DEA.
Mr Montalvo believes his case against Kinahan was significantly bolstered by the sanctions imposed by the US and the UAE.