Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
KING... OF THE £1BN DRUGS RING? Who is daniel kinahan?
Fury-joshua boxing middleman ‘terrified of arrest’ before fight
AN alleged gangster who helped broker the Anthony Joshua v Tyson Fury fight is “terrified” of being arrested before a punch is thrown.
Daniel Kinahan, named in Dublin’s High Court as the Kinahan cartel’s chief, handled Fury’s financial negotiations for the world heavyweight title bout.
He is thought to be holed up in Dubai, from where Irish authorities claim he runs the cartel’s £1billion drugs empire.
Sources say Kinahan, who denies any involvement in criminal activity, hopes to be at the fight which is likely to take place this year, possibly in Saudi Arabia.
But the 43-year-old fears he may be deported from Dubai before then as Irish authorities turn the screw.
Politicians have written to their counterparts in the UAE making them aware he and his cohorts are in the kingdom.
Officials in Dubai are also known to have been in contact with Irish and Spanish police.
“Things are moving forward,” a source said. “There is increasing confidence
Daniel and his crew will be deported – we just don’t know where they will then go. The only thing he is terrified of is being arrested and jailed.”
While Kinahan’s name is notorious in Ireland, he is largely unknown in the UK.
A BBC Panorama documentary this month revealed he remains an influential figure in the boxing world.
Some of the sport’s biggest names leapt to his defence after the show aired.
Here the Mirror sheds light on Kinahan’s life, his alleged links to organised crime and the stars who back him.
ON THE ROPES Kinahan fears being deported
THE Dubliner is the eldest son of Christy
“the Dapper Don” Kinahan, a convicted drug smuggler now living in Dubai.
His father is said to have passed on control of the cartel’s narcotics and money laundering operation to him in 2016.
In 2009 he was first named as a “suspected international drug trafficker” in a US diplomatic cable to the Pentagon.
Two years earlier Daniel was held by police in Spain along with his father and his brother Christy Jnr on suspicion of drug smuggling. He was not charged.
It is said he took temporary control of the business after Christy Snr was jailed for four years for money laundering. From his £4million
‘DAPPER DON’ His father Christy
CUFFED
Daniel is led from Spanish court in 2010 mansion in Estepona, Spain, he allegedly helped the cartel to amass a £700million fortune from drug trafficking. Daniel moved to Dubai, following his father and younger brother, in 2016.
He is banned from entering the United States after being placed on a “narco-terrorist” list by the FBI and DEA.
In a High Court affidavit in Ireland, the Criminal Assets Bureau described how he managed and controlled the day-to-day operations of the gang.
He is currently wanted for questioning by police forces in three countries.
Texas singer Sharleen Spiteri shouldn’t expect a call from Pooch Perfect producers…
The former hairdresser took her scissors to her Welsh Terrier in lockdown and admits: “The dog looks like a complete lunatic.”
On the Tea With Twiggy podcast, Sharleen, 53, says: “Honest to dog, that poor dog. I was a hairdresser – you know, still got that little bit of arrogance to me. How hard could it possibly be?
“Not easy… Not easy.”
It was hot and heavy, with excruciating talons, but the Masked Singer’s Robin costume made a nice change for JLS hunk Merrygold: finally he didn’t have to keep his torso tensed while singing.
Aston is used to showing off his pecs beneath a tight T-shirt. “I’ve probably always been on stage trying to take clothes off,” he laughs, adding it was a relief that during his time on the show he “wasn’t tensing all the time”.
But, like all the show’s costumes, the Robin outfit was restrictive and Aston reckons his performances were a substitute for the workouts he does to maintain his physique. “The jacket was
Aston
so heavy, and the claws... I had to make up a whole new walk. I was like Conor Mcgregor with a swagger.”
Aston’s bandmates, who rose to fame together on X Factor, clocked his voice immediately, but the singer was forced to deny it was him to maintain the show’s secrecy: “I had to be like: ‘What are you talking about?’
“There were a few curveballs in there but they knew, I’m not going to lie. You can’t work with people for 10 plus years and expect them not to know exactly what I sound like.”
Aston, 33, finished third behind Badger (R&B singer Ne-yo)
and winner Joss Stone, unmasked as Sausage. Aston and fiancee Sarah Richards have two sons, Grayson,
three, and Macaulay,
eight months.
He says that despite the “torture” of lockdown, he is grateful for the family time. He adds: “Selfishly, from my family point of view, it’s been good to be home.”
THE pandemic has made people kinder, with more than half of us helping others out of a jam over the past year.
A third believe that kindness is infectious – with one good deed leading to another.
Four in 10 said unexpected acts of kindness, such as a friendly hello from a stranger when out walking or a neighbour offering to help with shopping, set them up for the day.
And six in 10 said they had benefited from three such random acts of kindness in the last 12 months.
Over half rate themselves seven out of 10 on the kindness scale, found a survey of 2,000 adults by budget hotel chain Travelodge.
The nation’s kindness heroes are led by champions who have emerged in lockdown including Captain Sir Tom Moore and Clap for Carers founder Annemarie Plas.
Shakila Ahmed, of Travelodge, said: “Kindness is contagious and has been spreading far and wide during the Covid-19 pandemic.”
TOP 10 Kindness heroes: 1. Captain Sir Tom Moore 2. Marcus Rashford 3. Child fundraiser Frank Mills 4. Prof Chris Whitty 5. Joe Wicks
6. Annemarie Plas 7. Sir David Attenborough
8. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
9. Chancellor Rishi Sunak 10. The Queen
ruki.sayid@mirror.co.uk