Irish government aircraft heads to UAE to bring suspected crime boss Daniel Kinahan back

An Irish Air Corps aircraft is currently en route to the United Arab Emirates to facilitate the extradition of Daniel Kinahan, a suspected leader of a prominent organised-crime cartel. Kinahan was taken into custody in Dubai after Irish courts issued a warrant in April, and his legal challenges to the extradition have been rejected. Flight-tracking data shows the plane as the most-watched flight on Flightradar24.

Irish officials expect the suspect to be flown back on Sunday, where he will appear before the Special Criminal Court in Dublin and be held at the upgraded maximum-security Portlaoise Prison. The United States imposed sanctions on Kinahan in April 2022, and he previously owned the now-defunct boxing management company MTK Global, which represented over 100 fighters. An existing extradition treaty between the UAE and Ireland was also used recently to send Sean McGovern, a senior lieutenant of the same crime group, to serve a 24-year sentence.