FORTUNE CROOKIES
■ Mob now worth even more despite global crackdown ■ They use family and friends in order to evade sanctions
THE Kinahan cartel is now worth a massive €1.5 billion – despite an international crackdown on its leaders, it has emerged.
Authorities had previously said the international drugs and organised crime network was worth €1 billion – but an investigation now says its value has jumped by a cool 50 per cent.
The gang not only makes its riches from cocaine smuggling, but is heavily involved in money laundering, property speculation — and other legitimate businesses.
The investigation by the Sunday Times also claims that the Kinahans are using family and friends to get around the crackdown launched two years ago in which bosses Christy (67), Daniel (46) and Christopher Junior (43) were hit with $5 million bounties on their heads.
The paper said that the Dubaibased cartel was using front companies, offshore accounts and proxies to evade the sanctions campaign.
It even said it found evidence that on one occasion, a front company channelled
€783,000 to Christy
Kinahan via a company in New York linked to a close associate of his.
The investigation claimed that Kinahan got $1.25 million from a series of international wire payments – after the sanctions were imposed at a high-profile press conference in Dublin in April 2022.
The investigation said that sanctions have been imposed on the three Kinahan men and others – but their families and friends have not been touched.
Wife
That means their associates are free to travel internationally, set up businesses and use the international banking system.
It said Christy’s wife, Turkish national Neslihan Yildirim, has registered with a commodities trading platform in India.
She said in a Google review of the platform: “We felt like we were working with our best friend rather than a network or platform agent.
“Highly recommend for business owners, especially for starters!”
She is also alleged to have registered accounts with Israeli companies that manage luxury real estate.
Flight logs seen by the Sunday Times show she boarded a plane bound for Amsterdam three months after the sanctions were imposed — before returning to Dubai.
The paper also named several other people whom it alleged were working on behalf of the cartel.
Just last week, the same paper called Christy Kinahan the ‘Gastro Gangster’ – after revealing he wrote hundreds of food and other reviews that appeared online.
He was rating and slating restaurants and bars from Dubai to South Africa despite a global manhunt for him.
The online reviews show he has posted from Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Hungary, Belgium, Turkey, Egypt, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Hong Kong.
While the public’s image of the 67-yearold is that of a fugitive laying low and on the run from justice, the investigation found that nothing could be further from the truth.