As the head of a global organised crime group he is one of the world’s most wanted criminals, and has reportedly received anti-surveillance training to conceal his identity.
But perched in a ringside VIP seat and wearing a Panama hat, blue polo shirt and white trousers paired with blue trainers, this is Christy Kinahan doing little to disguise himself at a mixed martial art event.
The Irish crime boss, known as ‘Dapper Don’ for his sartorial style, was pictured for the first time in years – along with his son, Daniel, also a leading figure in the Kinahan cartel – at the six-hour 971 Fighting Championship in Dubai last June.
The two fugitives fled from Spain to the United Arab Emirates in 2016 and went to ground in April 2022, shortly after the US put $5million (£3.7million) bounties on their heads and imposed sanctions on the Kinahan gang.
US officials said the cartel smuggled ‘deadly narcotics, including cocaine, to Europe’, and was involved in money laundering and drug-related crime.
But an investigation by the Sunday Times and the open-source investigative outlet Bellingcat found the father and son at its head seemingly living freely.
The images emerged a month after the tenth anniversary of an attempted gangland hit on Daniel at a boxing event at a Dublin hotel ballroom, which left another man dead.
They show the father and son enjoying a VIP lifestyle despite the UAE’s insistence that it has frozen assets of theirs worth tens of millions of pounds.
Irish crime boss Christy Kinahan (pictured), known as ‘Dapper Don’ for his sartorial style, was pictured for the first time in years
Christy’s son, Daniel (L), also a leading figure in the Kinahan cartel was seen at the six-hour 971 Fighting Championship in Dubai last June
The pair were located after an image of Daniel, 48, was posted on a Dubai firm’s website. A months-long trawl of images on social media and a frame-by-frame examination of a six-hour livestream of the event showed Daniel sitting at one end of the VIP seats and Christy, 68, at the other.
Christy was in his seat for most of the competition and was observed ordering drinks and chatting to spectators, although he subtly obscured his face when cameras were pointed his way.
The Sunday Times confirmed his identity with sources who either knew him personally or have investigated his activities.
‘It’s him 100 per cent’, one source said. ‘He’s put a little weight on around his face, but he’s getting on now. He always looked after himself, but age is catching up with him.’
While Christy and Daniel did not openly mingle, they appeared to greet each other at the event at Dubai’s Coca Cola Arena.
Now worth around £1.5billion, the Kinahans are reportedly part of a ‘super-cartel’ that was at one point thought to control a third of Europe’s cocaine trade.
It has also been linked to Iran’s intelligence services and the Islamic militant group Hezbollah, and has reportedly helped Russia evade sanctions by shipping crude oil for the Kremlin.
