Irish crime 'godfather' Christy Kinahan is charged with passport fraud in Spain while cops drop probe into his son, who masterminded Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua two-fight deal
Irish crime 'godfather' Christy Kinahan has been charged with passport fraud after a long-running Spanish court probe sparked by dozens of arrests across three countries.
But the convicted Irish drug dealer, who has his own Wikipedia page and is routinely referred to in his homeland as a mob godfather, has been told he will not be tried for money laundering or membership of a criminal gang.
And Spanish state prosecutors have sensationally dropped their case against a string of other suspects including his two sons Daniel and Christopher after failing to build a watertight case against them.
Irish crime 'godfather' Christy Kinahan (pictured during his 2010 arrest) has been charged with passport fraud after a long-running Spanish court probe
Daniel was named in the Irish High Court in 2018 as a senior player in organised crime on a global scale despite having no criminal convictions.
And he was at the centre of an international controversy earlier this year when he was identified as the advisor who masterminded boxer Tyson Fury's lucrative two-fight deal with Anthony Joshua.
He and his brother have had the threat of long prison sentences hanging over their heads for more than a decade in Spain after they were arrested by heavily-armed police at their Costa del Sol homes as part of a five-nation operation against organised crime.
Alfredo Rubalcaba, Spain's Home Secretary when the Kinahans were held in May 2010, linked the alleged gang ringleaders to a string of murders when he congratulated police after the raids.
In its early stages the judicial probe focused on allegations of drugs and weapons trafficking.
Christy's son Daniel (pictured in 2010) was identified as the advisor who masterminded boxer Tyson Fury's lucrative two-fight deal with Anthony Joshua
It emerged in 2014 a judge probing Christy and a gang of suspected accomplices including his two sons had decided to drop her behind-closed-doors investigation into those crimes and focus solely on other allegations they were facing including money laundering and membership of a criminal gang.
Today it was confirmed the money laundering and criminal association facets of the criminal investigation had been mothballed - and only five of the original 31 detainees now face trial for lesser crimes which in most cases carry short prison sentences.
Christy Kihanan and two other men, Robert Edward Phillips and James Gregory Naughton, have been charged with passport fraud.
The seven-page court ruling says the judicial investigation has uncovered 'sufficient evidence' Christy Kinahan 'used a false passport to travel from Madrid's Barajas Airport to Rio in Janeiro in Brazil on April 30 2010.
It adds: 'To be specific, he used a British passport in the name of Michael Leslie Swift.
'This travel document was allegedly used by the suspect to reserve the air ticket, obtain the boarding card and pass through a police checkpoint.' It also says inquiries have shown there are 'justified reasons' to consider suspects Robert Edward Phillips and James Gregory Naughton were identified by police by a tunnel close to a luxury residential estate in Behavis near Marbella moments before another passport was found in a taped-up lunch box.
The travel document was an Irish passport in the name of Thomas Richard Hasset in which a photograph of Christy Kinahan had been inserted.
Daniel and his brother Christopher (pictured in 2010) have had the threat of long prison sentences hanging over their heads for more than a decade in Spain
Jasvinder Singh Kamoo, said to have played a key money laundering role by police investigators in a report highlighted by the Spanish press in their initial coverage of the case after the arrests, has been charged with using fake number plates on a Mercedes.
And a fifth man, Ross Gerard Browning, has been charged with unlawful possession of a weapon.
The gun Browning has been charged over was a Glock 19 pistol found at his home in Benahavis near Marbella on May 27, 2010, with the serial number erased.
A Sunday newspaper in Ireland reported last month Browning had fled to the 'Kinahan bolthole' in Dubai as gardai launched an assets recovery case.
Explaining why no charges of money laundering or criminal association were being brought against any of the men and women under formal investigation for the past ten years, the court ruling states: 'Although it's obvious from the lengthy police and court probe, documentation and testimonies that there are reasonable grounds to suspect those people investigated formed part of a criminal network to launder the proceeds of a criminal activity of drugs and weapons trafficking, it has not been possible under Spanish law to obtain evidence that could link the crime of money laundering which formed part of the investigation with a previous criminal activity.'
State prosecutors have now been asked to formulate indictments against Christy Kinahan and the four other men set to stand trial before the men's defence lawyers are asked for their written submissions.
A well-placed insider said: 'It's difficult to predict dates but this ruling probably sets us up for a trial sometime next year.'
Ageing Christy Kinahan, now also based in Dubai, has been warned he could face a prison sentence of up to three years and a fine if convicted, although the minimum prison sentence under Spanish law is just six months.
Daniel (pictured in 2010) was named in the Irish High Court in 2018 as a senior player in organised crime on a global scale despite having no criminal convictions
The time he spent in prison on remand after his Operation Shovel arrest, thought to be around six months, will be taken into account in determining if he will have to return to jail after any conviction.
It is not yet clear if his defence lawyers will now seek a plea bargain deal, as state prosecutors have yet to submit the indictment the investigating judge has now asked them to formulate.
One well-placed legal source said: 'It's rare for Spanish courts to hand out jail sentences of more than a year for passport fraud where a plea bargain deal resulting in a fine and possibly a suspended prison sentence for offenders is not reached ahead of trial.'
The court decision to charge Christy Kinahan was made at the same time his two sons were told the case against them was being dropped and the written ruling with the details has been sent to state prosecutors and the defence lawyers of those under investigation.
Alexandra Garcia, a pretty university-educated Spanish blonde once described as Daniel Kinahan's girlfriend who was probed on suspicion of setting up the financial structure which formed part of the Irish family's alleged crime empire, has also been spared trial.
The 24 men and women who were being formally investigated but are now completely in the clear, unless any compelling new evidence enabling them to be charged with criminal wrongdoing comes to light in the future, include John Cunningham.
He gained notoriety after masterminding the 1986 kidnapping of Jennifer Guinness whose husband John was then the millionaire chairman of the Guinness & Mahon Bank in Dublin. He was later jailed for 17 years and his brother Michael, who died from a heart attack in January 2015, was sentenced to 14 years.
Judicial sources today confirmed the current investigating judge behind the dramatic Kinahan ruling, based at Estepona's Court of Investigation Number Three, had acted at the behest of state prosecutors who had requested the 'provisional archiving' of the money laundering and criminal association allegations against the suspects.
The long-running judicial probe sparked by the Operation Shovel arrests has been bogged down for years by delays in getting answers to formal requests about the assets attributed to the 'Kinahan cartel.'
The 24 men and women who were being formally investigated but are now completely in the clear include John Cunningham
Authorities in Ireland are known to have been asked for information after the investigating judge sought answers from Brazil, where police said after the May 2010 arrests the cartel owned property owned 500 million euros.
Cyprus was also one of the countries where authorities were asked to provide information about the Kinahans' set-up.
Brazil is said to have taken five years to send its reply and Cyprus sent its answers back but in Greek, sparking a further 18-month delay in getting the replies translated which Spanish press described as 'unprecedented.'
The written court ruling makes it abundantly clear there is no watertight case against those probed over money laundering but 'reasonable grounds' to suspect they formed part of a gang specialising in making sure dirty money from drugs and weapons trafficking appeared legitimate.
A Costa del Sol-based prosecutor claimed in March 2016 he believed the Kinahans would be put on trial within 'months.'
Julio Martinez, chief prosecutor for the Marbella area, admitted in an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais the probe into their activities had been much less incriminating than expected.
Christy Kinahan, now based in Dubai, has been warned he could face a prison sentence of up to three years and a fine if convicted
He told the paper: 'The expectations were very high but the results have not been as satisfactory as we'd anticipated.'
He insisted in the interview he was confident the case against Christy and his sons Daniel and Christopher would 'not take many months' to come to trial.
He also said some loose ends were being tidied up and the Spanish authorities were awaiting on a response to official inquiries sent to Britain via rogatory commissions.
The feud between the Kinahans and the rival Hutch gang has been described as the bloodiest in Irish history and has been blamed for the loss of 18 lives including that of innocent holidaymaker Trevor O'Neill who was shot dead in Majorca in 2016.
It is widely regarded as being sparked by the assassination of Gary Hutch on September 24, 2015, in Miraflores on the Costa del Sol.
James Quinn was sentenced to 22 years in prison after being convicted of Hutch's murder following a five-day trial at a court in Malaga in June 2018.
On day two of the trial a senior Spanish police officer told the court officers had quickly determined Daniel Kinahan had ordered Hutch's murder but were unable to establish exactly why.
He said Quinn was named as the potential killer in an internal Garda report they were sent as part of a shared intelligence operation.
Outrage greeted Tyson Fury's revelation that Daniel Kinahan held a key role in negotiations in his hugely anticipated fights with Anthony Joshua
He revealed Spanish police also linked him to the Kinahan family after concluding he had been picked up from his torched getaway car by a Peugeot 206 registered to his late mum and driven by two Romanian brothers Quinn lived with.
A second vehicle allegedly used as a look-out car was linked by detectives to a woman described as Daniel's then-Romanian partner, the police officer told the court in a rambling witness statement. His words were at times barely audible to the press and public because he was testifying from behind a half-open door so he was only seen by the lawyers and part of the jury. The officer was not named in court, as is normal in Spain where police officers are only referred to by their service numbers.
He also told how Quinn, one of five people arrested over the Gary Hutch murder but the only one to be charged and put on trial, had a photo of Daniel Kinahan's mum Jean Boylan in his wallet when he was arrested.
Referring to a taped phone conversation Quinn had with a relative hours after innocent dad Trevor O'Neill was shot dead in Majorca in August 2016 after being mistaken for a member of the Hutch family, he added: 'Before it was publicly known the killer in that crime had got the wrong person, he was talking to the relative in code and referring to a tattoo with the word 'failed.'
'That showed clearly he was a member of a drugs trafficking organisation.
'We attributed the Gary Hutch murder to the Kinahan clan early on and concluded James Quinn was the material author of the crime with assistance from others after that.'
State prosecutor Jose Barba told the jury in his closing trial speech that although there was no written contract to prove Quinn was a hired assassin for the Kinahan family, there was evidence pointing to the fact he was a paid killer and murdered Hutch for money on the orders of an organised crime boss.
The possibility of a life sentence was cancelled out because jurors rejected prosecution claims Quinn belonged to a criminal organisation blamed for the killing, despite the prosecutor saying it was linked to the ongoing deadly feud between the Hutch and Kinahan families. Jurors also ruled it had not been proven he was paid for the murder.
Hutch was reportedly living at the complex where he was killed after returning to Spain following the brokering of a 200,000 Euro deal to compensate the Kinahan crime cartel after a botched attempt to shoot Daniel Kinahan at his rented Spanish home.
Daniel was unharmed but innocent Jamie Moore, a former light-middleweight boxing champion who was staying at the property, was shot twice by mistake and narrowly escaped death. The August 3, 2014, crime remains unsolved.