Crime boss false reinvention bid as boxing promoter cannot succeed – Richmond

EVIL criminal Daniel Kinahan cannot be allowed run for cover with the protection of the international boxing community, a Fine Gael TD has said.

Deputy Neale Richmond, a Dublin-Rathdown TD, has said a recent whitewashing attempt by one of Ireland’s most dangerous criminals to reinvent himself as a boxing promoter cannot be allowed to succeed.

Daniel Kinahan – described in a Criminal Assets Bureau affidavit in the High Court as running the day-to-day drug trafficking operations of an international crime gang – has been linked to a major international boxing event by some of the sport’s best-known boxers.

“We all know exactly the type of murder and havoc Daniel Kinahan and his gang have dealt on the streets of Dublin and this country. Murder, drugs and intimidation is the modus operandi of Ireland’s most infamous criminal outfit,” Deputy Richmond said.

“The fact that this trail of bloodshed is now being totally whitewashed by some in the international boxing community is a disgrace. Allowing Kinahan to hide his notorious gangland activities behind a veneer of a respectable boxing promoter cannot be allowed to happen.

“I have called on our Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney to make a direct appeal to the authorities in Dubai to hold Kinahan to account for his real activities.

“Ireland has a lucrative and growing relationship with the United Arab Emirates in a range of sectors as a large Irish diaspora also make their homes in emirates like Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

“This relationship cannot be compromised by a tacit approval of the gangland activities of Daniel Kinahan that run parallel to his boxing promotion,” Deputy Richmond said.