Court findings deal knockout blow to Kinahans’ new drive for respectable reputation
Gang ‘carries out murders and trafficking’
DANIEL Kinahan’s hopes of reinventing himself as a respectable businessman have been dealt a knockout blow as a Special Criminal Court judge found his criminal organisation is responsible for execution-style murders and the international trafficking of guns and drugs.
Mr Justice Tony Hunt said the non-jury court accepted Garda evidence that the Kinahan cartel was involved in killings associated with feuds and that it operates a hierarchical structure with sub-cells working on the directions of superiors.
The judge made his comments as another of Kinahan’s “foot soldiers” was jailed for helping to plan the murder of Patrick ‘Patsy’ Hutch, the father of Gary Hutch whose murder sparked the feud that has left a trail of devastation.
Mark Capper, the judge said, was aware of the nature and structure of the Kinahan organisation when he was involved in the murder plot which was foiled by the Garda Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (DOCB).
The 31-year-old “knew well” what was contemplated by his associates and he had a “shrewd appreciation” of the detail and methodology to be used in the proposed execution.
In sentencing Capper to seven-and-a-half years’ imprisonment the court found that his conduct was intentional as opposed to reckless and that he was initially prepared to serve on the front line and offered ideas toward the plan to murder Hutch.
The Kinahan henchman had admitted helping to organise the proposed assassination of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch’s older brother between February 1 and March 10, 2018, which was secretly recorded by the DOCB.
Capper, from Cappagh Green in Finglas, pulled out three days before the attack was planned to take place.
During the sentence hearing earlier this month, a senior garda gave compelling evidence on how the Kinahan gang operates a hierarchical structure, with compartmentalised “sub-cells” acting independently from one another and taking orders from the leadership.
He also told how these subcells operate to “benefit and enhance the capabilities” of the criminal organisation.
Capper was typical of the calibre of some of the foot soldiers hired by the Kinahan cartel to do Daniel’s dirty work.
He was diagnosed with ADHD at a young age, had an IQ of 63 when he was 13 years old and attended a school for pupils with learning disabilities.
He was arrested after the Garda Emergency Response Unit (ERU) swooped on a three-man “hit for hire team” on March 10, 2018, just 250 metres from Patsy Hutch’s home in Dublin’s north inner-city.
Last year the Special Criminal Court jailed brothers Gary (35) and Glen Thompson (25) for 12 and a half years each, while Afghan war veteran Robert Browne (36) was sentenced to 11 and a half years.
They all pleaded guilty to possession of four firearms with intent to endanger life.
While Kinahan may not care
what happens to his dispensable foot soldiers, yesterday’s unequivocal comments by Judge Hunt will upset him.
The emphatic ruling by one of the highest courts in the land completely undermines his efforts to erase his bloody past and reinvent himself as a legitimate boxing impresario abroad.
It also obliterates the fake news campaign he has orchestrated on social media from his bolt-hole in the UAE, which is designed to portray him as the innocent victim of an absurd conspiracy theory.
A video which suggested a political plot was behind the
Regency Hotel attack was removed from the internet on foot of a complaint from Independent News & Media (INM).
The news that Kinahan was appointed as a special adviser to KHK Sports, a company owned by Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad of Bahrain’s royal family, was greeted with disbelief by law enforcement agencies in Ireland, the UK, Spain and the Netherlands, which have been investigating the activities of his cartel for years.
That was followed by the announcement by the boxing promotions company MTK – which had denied any connection to the cartel boss – announcing that it had entered into partnership with Kinahan and KHK Sports.
Senior figures in the world of boxing have adopted a “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” approach to Kinahan’s uncomfortable background and have extolled his virtues as an “honest guy”.
His supporters, who have chosen to attack the Irish media for writing what they deem to be untruths about the gang boss, may find it more difficult to denounce the findings of the Special Criminal Court.
They will have difficulty trying to reconcile his bloody past when an international arrest warrant is issued for his arrest for heading up an international organised crime group.
Kinahan is also suspected of being personally involved in the murder of Eddie Hutch in 2016, three days after the Regency Hotel attack which was planned by Gerry Hutch.
Yesterday’s court finding by a respected member of Ireland’s judiciary leaves no room for interpretation.
The dark deeds of Kinahan’s criminal enterprise have been ventilated in a way not seen before and surely now the people who continue to defend this man will be given pause for thought.