Kinahan associate is arrested in raid
Suspect also wanted for questioning in France in phone probe
A LONG-TIME Kinahan cartel associate, who is suspected of being one of the main dealers of Encrochat encrypted phones used by top-tier criminals across Europe, was arrested last week as part of a Criminal Assets Bureau raid in Co Wicklow.
The man, who was brought up in a wealthy suburb on Dublin’s southside, has spent the last 18 years operating in Europe, mainly Geneva, and was released without charge but is now facing potential money laundering charges in Ireland.
He is also wanted for questioning by French police over his alleged involvement in dealing the encrypted phones to major European criminals.
The devices, which are also used by the criminal organisation headed up by Daniel Kinahan and cost upwards of €1,000, enable the criminals to secretly organise murders, fraud, drug trafficking and money laundering.
The 46-year-old’s arrest is a major blow for the Kinahan cartel and comes in the same week that gardai publicly vowed to dismantle the international crime group following a number of significant drugs and firearms seizures as well as the jailing of the gang’s sub-cells.
The Encrochat supplier has been linked to Christy Kinahan Snr since the late 1990s after being caught up in a sting by Dutch police targeting Kinahan’s business partner John Cunningham in Amsterdam before going to ground.
He was arrested last Tuesday following a series of searches by the CAB targeting an international money laundering operation using Chinese businesses based in Ireland.
More than €1m was seized in cash and frozen in bank accounts after the raids on eight homes and five businesses.
In one search, members of the Emergency Response Unit arrested a Chinese national who was trying to flee a property with more than €100,000 stuffed into shopping bags.
The CAB suspect the Dublin man and Kinahan associate was acting as the facilitator between the Chinese nationals and the criminal gangs laundering their proceeds of crime through the businesses.
The man’s family home in the upmarket south Dublin suburb was searched and he was later discovered in a property in Wicklow.
His arrest came in the same week a joint European investigation carried out by French and Dutch police forces resulted in the dismantling of an encrypted phone network used by organised crime groups across the world.
Over a two-month period, police were able to monitor live chats between major criminals all over Europe.
They described how this enabled them to intervene in crimes including kidnap, torture, attempted murder and numerous drug and firearms deals.
They have also intercepted one billion messages.
The bust is the most significant coup for law enforcement against organised crime in decades and is expected to result in numerous arrests.