Colombia visit to raise Kinahan links to cartels
TÁNAISTE and Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin said he will discuss the Kinahan organised crime group’s dealings with South American drug cartels on his visit to Columbia and Mexico in the new year.
‘We will raise and discuss with the authorities, both Mexico and Colombia, obviously the broader global challenges, narcotics, drug trade and so on and shared experiences,’ he told reporters at a pre-Christmas interview.
However, Mr Martin said his time in Mexico and Columbia will be largely spent developing political and economic ties.
‘We’ve had a very strong economic relationship with Mexico and with the region more broadly, and we’re determined to try and build on that,’ he said.
‘We have successful Irish companies operating within the region… so there’s a strong economic dimension to this visit.’
The Foreign Affairs Minister said he will spend some of his time in Columbia ‘assisting and helping’ its peace process.
‘In Colombia, the focus will again be more political, and also on the role that Ireland has been playing in terms of assisting and helping the peace process.
‘Ireland, through its ambassador and diplomatic footprint, is working to share some of the lessons of the conflict in [the North] with the authorities in Colombia. And they’ve been very appreciative of our suggestions.’
Meanwhile, deep links were uncovered last year between cartel boss Daniel Kinahan and South American gangs, who he joined with to transport ‘megashipments’ across continents.
The Insight Crime website told how Kinahan turned to the Urabeños – a trafficking gang formed out of paramilitaries in Colombia – when key ally Ricardo Riquelme was arrested in 2017, leaving the Irish mobster without a key cocaine supply route.
One of Daniel Kinahan’s closet criminal contacts, Dutch-Chilean Riquelme was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2021.
The Urabeños Cartel is regarded as Columbia’s biggest cocaine trafficking gang that controls the production of the drug in the country’s jungles.