Daniel Kinahan: Alleged boss of Irish crime gang appears in court after high-security extradition

Daniel Kinahan has been remanded in custody after appearing before an Irish court charged with directing an organised crime group.

The boxing promoter appeared at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin on Sunday after being extradited from Dubai on an Irish government jet.

He was arrested when he landed back on Irish soil at Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel, an airport outside the capital, just after 6.30pm.

Kinahan, 49, was charged with directing the activities of a criminal organisation between 18 October 2015 and 6 April 2017.

Unside the court room, the dock was checked by polic before Mr Kinahan appeared, alongside several other officers, for a hearing which lasted about 14 minutes.

At the judge-led hearing, Judge Fiona Lydon, Judge Patrick McGrath and Ms Justice Sarah Berkeley sat in the court which tries terrorism and organised crime cases.

Judge McGrath told Mr Kinahan when the case would next be heard, and explained to him that because of the charge an application for bail would have to be made to the High Court.

Mr Kinahan said: "I understand. I think we know I won't be getting bail, but thank you."

Before the hearing, a joint statement from Ireland and the United Arab Emirates described the alleged crime boss as "one of the most high-profile individuals sought for prosecution in connection with transnational organised crime".

Kinahan is allegedly the leader of the Kinahan organised crime group, which is said to have smuggled illegal drugs, including cocaine and cannabis - as well as guns - into Europe.

US authorities have described the gang as one of the most "dangerous cartels in the world" and previously offered a reward of up to $5m (£3.7m) for Kinahan's arrest.

Irish police, with assistance from authorities in the UK, Spain and the US, have been pursuing members of the group for the past decade.

The Garda Siochana commissioner Justin Kelly said Kinahan's extradition from Dubai "shows our determination, along with our international policing partners, including Dubai Police, to target transnational organised crime groups".

More than 70,000 people tracked the plane carrying Kinahan from Dubai, and crowds gathered outside the Special Criminal Court in hopes of glimpsing him.

Armed Irish police officers were stationed at entrances to the court, where Kinahan arrived in a convoy of vehicles with blacked-out windows.

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The security precautions, which involved armed police and members of the armed forces, come after the Kinahan cartel was involved in a bloody feud with the rival Hutch crime gang in Ireland, which began in 2015 and resulted in 18 deaths.

An attempt was made on Kinahan's life in 2016 at a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel in Dublin.

After the court appearance, the alleged organised crime boss was taken to Portlaoise Prison, a high-security jail about 90 miles (145km) southwest of Dublin.

Kinahan will appear in court on 5 October.

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