US puts sanctions on ‘gang enforcer’
A NOTORIOUS Greater Manchesterraised ex-pat is among seven alleged members of the Kinahan cartel sanctioned by the US government.
John Francis Morrissey, aka Johnny Morrissey, is the Irish gang’s ‘enforcer’ and money launderer who ‘facilitates international drug shipments’ from south America into Europe for the gang, according to the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
Said to have worked for the cartel for ‘several years,’ the M.E.N. understands Ireland-born Morrissey, 62, was raised in Rochdale and spent much of his early life earning a fearsome reputation in Manchester before moving to Marbella in Spain. A Glasgow-based vodka company he is linked to has also been designated as part of the US sanctions.
Morrissey is the ‘brand ambassador’ for Nero Drinks but ‘controls and operates’ the company through the primary shareholder, his wife, according to the US Treasury. She is ‘used as a frontperson for his interests.’
The OFAC states Johnny Morrissey ‘has given a significant portion of the business’ to Daniel Kinahan, said to run ‘day-to-day operations’ for the gang, to ‘compensate for loads of drugs seized by law enforcement.’ Dubaibased Kinahan has also been sanctioned. Kinahan ‘instructed’ other gang members to send money to serving prisoners including one serving time for murder, according to the US Treasury.
“Daniel Kinahan, who sources large quantities of cocaine from South America, plays an integral part in organizing the supply of drugs in Ireland, and is attempting to facilitate the importation of cocaine into the United Kingdom. Daniel Kinahan is known to have used false identity documents,” said the OFAC. Kinahan’s brother Christopher and their father Christy Kinahan Snr, the alleged founder of the cartel, and Kinahan associates Sean McGovern, Ian Dixon and Bernard Clancy, together with Morrissey, have been sanctioned.
US authorities are offering a $5m reward for information leading to the ‘financial destruction’ of the gang or the arrest and conviction of its leaders.
After the US announced the sanctions at a launch in Dublin, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said the gang has amassed wealth of more than one billion euros. Since 2016, the gang has been involved in a war with another group in Ireland and Spain, resulting in numerous murders.
Wendy Woolcock, special agent in charge of special operations division at the US Drug Enforcement Administration, said it will ‘relentlessly pursue’ the gang.
Morrissey is understood to have spent the last 20 years in Marbella. A source said he grew up in Littleborough and used to be a doorman in the local pubs.