‘Dapper Don’ Christy Kinahan faces four years in prison after being charged in Spain

GANG boss Christy Kinahan Snr has returned to the Costa del Sol for a trial for passport fraud after being indicted by Spanish prosecutors and warned he would face up to four years in prison if convicted. I have to.

The “Dapperdon” were said not to have to leave Dubai asylum to personally attend a court in Malaga if prosecutors sought a sentence of less than two years in prison.

A possible Kinahan Sr. Suspects arrested as part of Operation Shovel will be tried on lesser charges.

It was confirmed yesterday that indictments had been filed against all five men.

And instead of two years for Kinahan Sr. to escape a troubled return to Europe, state prosecutors have confirmed they are seeking a double prison sentence before his trial.

Their imprisonment request — two years for each of the two passport fraud cases in which Kinahan Sr. was charged — was filed with the Estepona Third Order Court, which spent more than a decade investigating the arrested suspects. is made in the indictment of Operation excavator in May 2010.

Kinahan Sr. was named by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in April as the leader of the Kinahan Organized Crime Group along with his two sons, and was accused of using a forged passport to fly to Brazil.

In the indictment, prosecutors allege that Kinahan Sr. used a British passport bearing the name of Michael Leslie Swift to board Iberia Airlines flight IB6205 to Rio de Janeiro on April 29, 2010.

“He also used the same false identity to book tickets and obtain boarding passes,” the indictment states.

Documents received by the defense attorneys of all five suspects on trial also outline the basis for the second fraud charge against Kinahan Snr.

On June 15, 2010, local police in Benahavis, near Marbella, allegedly “surprised” Robert Edward Phillips and James Gregory Norton near a taped lunch box.

Inside the lunch box was found an Irish passport bearing the name of a man who died in Ireland on March 23, 2002.

The indictment states: “The passport contained a photograph of Christopher Kinahan Sr.

In addition to two years’ imprisonment for each crime charged, the public prosecutor obliged the Estepona court to pay fines totaling around €6,500 and part of the court costs if convicted. said he was looking for

Norton and Phillips are also said to want the two jailed if state prosecutors are found guilty.

Jasvinder Singh Kamoo is said to have played a major money laundering role by police investigators in reports highlighted by the Spanish press in the first coverage of Operation Shovel after his arrest, and faked a license plate in a Mercedes. You are being tried for using the plate.

Prosecutors confirmed in an indictment released yesterday that they are also seeking two years in prison.

A fifth man, Ross Gerald Browning, is on trial for illegal possession of a weapon, and the prosecutor who charged him now says he is seeking two years and nine months in prison.

The indictment reveals that Christy Kinahan Snr has no previous convictions in Spain.

Under Spanish law, imprisonment sentences are usually suspended only for a period of two years or less.

“Dapper Don” spent about six months in jail after being arrested for Operation Shovel.

It is understood that no date has yet been set for the trial scheduled to take place in the courts of Malaga.

A well-placed insider confirmed last night that he risks being subject to an international arrest warrant if he fails to appear in court.

Kinahan Sr. is now expected to try stepping up efforts through his lawyers to seek an out-of-court settlement where he agrees to plead guilty in exchange for a reduced sentence.

It wasn’t immediately clear yesterday whether he would have to appear in court if a plea deal was struck, but the fact that four other men are on trial makes it a possibility. It can make things complicated.

The Irishman’s deportation to Spain is expected to end with an attempt to extradite him to the United States or Ireland.

US Ambassador to Ireland Claire Cronin dismantled the Kinahan gang in April after the US government attacked Kinahan Sr., his two sons, and four other men identified as key players in the sanctions announced a $5 million reward for key information leading to this.

One of the seven, British-born Irish passport holder Johnny Morrissey, was arrested at a rented apartment on the Costa del Sol in September on suspicion of money laundering and being a member of a criminal gang. .

He remains in prison custody.

The devastating U.S. sanctions announced in April are said to have derailed plans by Christy Kinahan Sr. to start a new life in Zimbabwe with partner Nessie Yildirim.

According to recent reports, the godfathers of crime aimed to take control of one of the world’s major cocaine shipping routes from their new base in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare.

After fleeing the Costa del Sol to the United Arab Emirates a few years ago, in the wake of Operation Shovel and the attempted assassination of Daniel, they are trying to stay one step ahead of the law, and in recent months there has been an increase in the number of people traveling to Kinahan. The pressure is building. Kinahan.

Earlier this week, six suspects, including a 32-year-old British man, were arrested in the UAE city of Dubai. This was part of an international operation against drug “supercartels” that the police and Europol described as “unprecedented”.

Operation Shovel’s impact has been going on for years.

As part of a high-profile operation, when Kinahan was detained on the Costa del Sol in May 2010, Spain’s interior minister, Alfredo Rubarkaba, linked the murders to a congratulatory message to police after a raid. said.

In the early stages, judicial investigations focused on allegations of drug and arms trafficking.

In 2014, a judge investigating a gang of suspected accomplices, including Christy Kinahan Sr. It has now been revealed that it has decided to focus solely on other allegations involving money laundering and criminal gang membership. criminal group.

In September 2020, it was confirmed that the money laundering and gang-related aspects of the criminal investigation had been stopped. He says only five of his original 31 detainees are being tried for lesser crimes.