15/03/2016 Spotlight

A murderous feud that has left Dublin on high alert. A war between

two rival factions that has seen bloodshed on the streets of Dublin

to the Costa del Sol. One thing you notice is the degree of how

aggressive they are, and the violence, they just settled their

scores with killing someone. On one side, drugs cartel run from Spain by

an Irish family called the Kinahans, a cartel whose inner workings have

remained a mystery until now. Tonight, Spotlight exclusively

reveals police files that chart the astonishing wealth and global scope

of the Kinahan drugs trafficking operation. This is incredible. This

says that at one point the cartel decided to buy their own container

ship. And for the first time at a meeting with me in Spain,

representatives of the Kinahan gang is you a public statement about the

ongoing gang war. I have just returned from a meeting with an

intermediary on the half of the Kinahans. It is the first time they

have spoken to anyone, albeit through a third party, since the

recent shootings. Last month, this hotel in Dublin was

the scene of one of the most audacious murder attempts in Irish

criminal history. At a weighing in for a boxing match with families in

attendance, six gunmen entered the building, four of them dressed as a

guard of firearms unit. But they were not police, they were here to

kill. GUNFIRE.

What just happened? I don't know. The hotel where four gunman shot

three men, killing one of them, remains sealed off today as the

Garda investigation continued. This is Phil Sutcliffe, a boxing

trainer here in Dublin's south city. His son was one of the boxes taking

part in the weighing in. We know that there was some crackling, and

people running, and my son went out of the door. Spotlight has

exclusively obtained a sound recording which captures the shock

of those trapped inside the hotel. The man you are about to hear hid

behind the reception desk just as the shooting began.

People are lying on their bellies, frightened. Tables were turned over,

kids screaming. I just focused on my son and out of the door, and he

happened to run straight into them. Iran's out after him to get him

back, and Iranian to them as well. Between the door and the lobby, Phil

came face-to-face with a gunman who pointed an AK-47 assault rifle

straight at him. But the gunman was dressed as a police officer from the

Garda's tactical support unit, complete with helmet and uniform. It

was pointed at me through the glass of the door. I opened one of the

doors, and he was there, like you are there now. What went through

your head? I have seen Garda, and I put my hands up. I said, my son is

out there, and I'm going out to get him. And they went in and I went

out, and that is when I saw them diving on the ground.

Lying dead in the lobby was David Burke, he was 34 and a well-known

criminal from Dublin. Can you recall the composure of the shooters? Did

they seem calm? Pretty calm. Were you surprised at that?

Professionals, very calm. They knew what they were doing, so... Were

they taking their time, going around? They were in and out and

gone. In and out and gone. The gunman had left a trail of

carnage in their wake. Three men injured, two seriously, and David

burned dead. But the main target of the attack had escaped. This is

Daniel Kinahan. To understand what really happened at the Regecy Hotel

last month, and why it said shock waves through the criminal

underworld in Ireland and right across Europe, you need to

understand the histories of the two criminal factions involved. They are

two families who now appear to be in a state of all-out war. The

Kinahans, and the Hutches. Daniel Kinahan is widely reported to be the

man who now runs a worldwide drugs cartel

man who now runs a worldwide drugs on the Costa del Sol. The

man who now runs a worldwide drugs organisation was originally set up

by his father, Christopher Kinahan, or Christy

by his father, Christopher Kinahan, for Spain in 2001, and established a

global empire for Spain in 2001, and established a

importation and distribution of drugs. It is an empire that

importation and distribution of reported to be worth over 1 billion

euros. Christy Kinahan senior has reported to be worth over 1 billion

surpassed all levels of wealth and criminality that have previously

emerged from this country. He is a man that is organising

drug-trafficking shipments right across Europe. The Kinahan family

associate in Ireland, and have a associate in Ireland, and have a

list of loyal lieutenants who travel back and forth regularly between

Dublin and Marbella. back and forth regularly between

is a boxing fan, and is closely associated with the gym in my Beyer

called MGM. -- in Marbella. associated with the gym in my Beyer

travelled to see fighters from the associated with the gym in my Beyer

gym due to boxer to fight in Dublin, and that is why he was at the

weighing in. So, who was it that tried to kill him? The initial clues

point to some level of involvement from dissident republicans. The

first and biggest clue for the authorities comes from this

photograph. It was taken just after the shooting, and it shows two men

fleeing the scene carrying weapons. One of them had been dressed as a

woman. The other way as a peaked cap. Neither is wearing a mask. For

an operation that seems to have been carried out with ruthless

professionalism, it seems to be a remarkable oversight. The Fota --

photograph was taken by a journalist from the Sunday world newspaper.

Nicola Tallant as an investigative journalist with the Sunday world

newspaper. Initially the photographer himself thought that he

had taken a photograph of a gunman running from the scene with a woman

fleeing beside him. But on close inspection when we blew the picture

up, you could clearly see that it wasn't a woman fleeing, it was

another gunman dressed in drag, such a clear image, and I suppose it did

take is a while to realise that this was the most significant piece of

evidence that has ever been gathered at a gangland crime scene, and there

are repercussions for that. Some of those repercussions have included

death threats for the Sunday world journalists. Its significance was

seen across the world, but here in Europe, journalists are being

threatened by an organised crime gang, it is like something from

Mexico. At the Sunday world had to pixelate the photos when the guard I

threatened to injure the paper, saying that revealing the gunman's

identities would hinder the investigation. Nevertheless,

insecurity, legal and journalistic circles, the identity of the man in

the peaked is widely known. My understanding is he is a man from

the north of Ireland who has paramilitary history. He has been

involved in a number of paramilitary groups and has been expelled from

some of them. Clearly he is a hit man far higher. Spotlight uncovered

this picture which, until recently, was on the web page of a fitness

centre in County Tyrone. We have disguised as identity, but it

appears to be the same man. He's a dissident republican who in the past

has been charged with firearms offences with regard to attacks on

drug dealers. Spotlight understands that he has now fled to England. The

weapons used in the attack also indicated that the attackers had

dissident republican connections. My understanding is that these are

Kalashnikov assault rifles that were previously owned by the provisional

IRA and fell into the hands of this group. Spotlight understands that

the IRA investigated the hotel shooting and the weapons -- how the

weapons, once part of their arsenal, were used in the attack. These

weapons were loaned to the group and they have carried out the raid, the

military assault, at the Regency. Days after the shooting, the BBC

received a statement which claims the Dublin keening Philly, --

claimed the Dublin killing Philly Continuity IRA, but the next day

they issued a statement denying involvement in the shooting and

playing it on criminals -- blaming it on criminals. I went to visit as

Dalton from Republican Sinn Fein, political organisation widely

considered to be the political wing of the Continuity IRA. What was your

reaction when you heard the Continuity IRA had been involved in

some capacity in the shooting? My immediate reaction was that this is

bogus, it didn't have any credibility, and indeed that was the

sense that I was getting from any of the media people who were in contact

with me. But it does seem that there is some sort of split within the

Continuity IRA? Yes, to my knowledge, and within Republican

Sinn Fein there was a section, another pupil dismissed for

connections with criminality back in 2010. Within Sinn Fein or the

Continuity IRA? The Continuity IRA. So it appears there is some

involvement from Rogner public elements, possibly a splinter group

from the Continuity IRA. But the assumption by many people who know

this story is that those dissident republican elements were acting on

behalf of a well-known Dublin criminal. George hutch, also known

as the Monk. Gerard Hutch is criminal career

started here in North inner-city Dublin. Brian Sherry is a retired

Garda detective who during his time as a young officer on Dublin 's

northside came to known Gerard Hutch well. He was part of what was known

locally Indian city of Dublin as Bugsy Malone. They were a small

criminal gang that used to run riot, shoplifting and pickpocketing. But

in the late 80s, he progressed to much more serious crime. Gerard

Hutch did not deal in or take drugs, claiming that they were destroying

his community. Because of his clean living, he became known as the Monk

and that is how he got his nickname. His crime of choice was robbery and

in the 1980s and his name was associated with two of the biggest

cash robberies in the history of the Irish state. He was suspected of

being behind the robbery of ?1.7 million from Securicor transit van

in North Dublin in 1987. And then in 1995, he was the prime suspect for

the Brinks Allied depot robbery in Closhaugh in North Dublin in which

robbers escaped with ?3 million. I arrested Gerard at his home and

brought him down to the station and we questioned him there for quite a

number of days. There was no sufficient evidence with which to

pursue a charge against him in the courts. But he was not the only

suspect in the huge robberies. Garda intelligence suggested they had been

carried out with help from members of the provisional IRA and that the

proceeds had been split between his gang and Republicans. It is believed

by the gardai that Gerard was involved in these robberies with

people that were involved in the IRA at that tickle a time. Gerard Hutch

was never convicted of either robbery but the allegations alone

gained him notoriety. The Monk became a household name. In 2008, he

even went on national television. He was asked once again if he carried

out the two robberies but said he had become rich by getting money

from an insurance claim and then investing it in property. One minute

you are a guy who has no money who has grown up in poverty. You get a

compensation claim and now you are a multimillionaire. And

coincidentally, around the same time, two of the biggest armed

robberies in the history of the state are carried out. And you are

linked to both of them. Yeah. That is it. Do you really expect people

to believe that? I don't believe what they -- care what they believe

to be honest but what do I say? If everybody believes I did it, hands

up I did not do it. That is all I can say. By the time of his TV

interview in 2008, Gerard Hutch could be described as a celebrity

criminal but it seemed that he was also a retired one. In 2000, Gerard

Hutch played in the region of ?1 million to the criminal assets

bureau in the Republic despite never having been convicted of the major

robberies. He then appeared to focus on his property empires. Gerard

Hutch may have thought he had finally found the quiet life but all

of that was about to change in a big way. This is Gary Hutch, Gerard

Hutch is their view. And the central reason for this gangland war. Like

his notorious uncle, Gary Hutch started a life of crime as a

teenager. In 2001, he was jailed for robbing a jeweller 's shop. After he

got out of prison, he drifted into the drugs trade, an area of crime

that his uncle had famously stayed away from. He amassed a string of

convictions and gained a reputation as a ruthless and violent gangster.

But above all, Gary Hutch was ambitious. And for an ambitious

Irish gangster in the early to thousands, there was only one place

to go and one gang to work for. Sometime in the middle of the last

decade, Gary Hutch decided that he would go and work for the Kinahan

family in Spain. He started off working as a bodyguard for Daniel

Kinahan. He became a link between two powerful factions, the Hutches

and the Kinahans but it would all go very, very wrong.

Marbella, Spain. It is not just holiday-makers who find the Costa

Del Sol congenial. This part of Spain earned the nickname Costa Del

crime in the late 1970s after the collapse of an extradition treaty

between the UK and Spain. The loophole was closed in 1985 but by

then, dozens of reddish criminals on the run had moved here. Irish crime

figures relocated here following the introduction of the criminal assets

bureau. But moving wealth beyond the reach of the authorities is not the

only attraction. The Costa Del Sol is a hub for the international

narcotics trade. Morocco, which is visible across this stretch of sea,

is the gateway for the North African cannabis market and the language

here and the cultural links to the cocaine producing regions of South

America makes seven Spain the ideal base for importing and distributing

product. Local journalist Berta Gonzalez de

Vega says that individuals who moved here are rarely asked about the

source of their wealth. It is not a very close community. They don't

care. You can start playing golf in a clubhouse and you have your group

of friends but you do not really ask what do you do besides playing golf

with me. Drug dealers, they want to live well, they do not want to live

in a horrible place but they lead to beautiful lives here. They do not

get asked about their business, they can have children horse jumping,

playing golf, boxing. The Kinahan crime gang took up residence here

almost 15 years ago. The operation was started by Christy Kinahan. Like

his counterpart Gerry Hutch, Rusty Kinahan grew up in inner-city Dublin

although he was from the south side of the city. He was convicted of

drugs offences in the late 1990s and went to Mountjoy Prison in Dublin.

He utilised his time in prison to actually better himself and wanted

to learn and go online and do educational courses and became quite

fluent in different languages. Few would have thought it then but

Christy Kinahan was laying the foundations for an empire. Fluent in

Spanish and Dutch, he was released from prison in 2001 and made his way

to Spain. Then he made connections with Irish and UK criminals and

started importing and distributing drugs. His business grew and grew.

He was seen as the person to go to. He would set up the connections and

the distribution and that was his forte. That is how he became so huge

in that both business. Some believe Christy Kinahan has made hundreds of

millions of pounds from the importation and distribution of

heroin, cocaine and cannabis. That was always a matter of speculation

until the Spanish led police operation uncovered the scale of the

Kinahan cartel. In June 2008, the European police umbrella group

Europe all held a meeting of police forces from all over Europe. They

decided to investigate the Kinahans. The investigation would be codenamed

Operation Shovel. It became a wide-ranging and forensic

investigation but the Itzhak details have never been made public. Until

now. During our visit to Spain, we managed to obtain a leaked copy of

the Spanish police files on Operation Shovel. Spotlight has

exclusively obtained details of the police investigation into

Christopher Kinahan and what is described as the Kinahan

organisation. The investigation centres on allegations of drug

trafficking, gun trafficking and money-laundering and the details in

this case are astounding. The investigation led by Spanish

authorities also incorporated specialist police teams in Belgium,

Ireland and the UK. The files reveal some fascinating details about how

the cartel worked from the inside. In Spain, Christy Kinahan was living

and outwardly modest life. He shunned the sprawling villas,

nestled in the hills. Home instead was an apartment in this beach-side

combat. A secure gated community for a man whose spotlight can reveal was

fully aware that his business was of interest to the police. In 2009, the

organised crime and drugs unit of the Spanish police sought and were

granted judicial permission to wiretap the phones of a number of

individuals associated with the Kinahan cartel. That included

Christopher Kinahan, the director of the cartel. His elbows son Daniel

and Gary Hutch. The wiretaps reveal the lengths the gang went to in

order to keep it business private. They used phones that with advanced

encryption. Each handset cost in the region of ?2000. Even these phones

were frequency destroyed and Sim cards change greatly. The police

files reveal that annual Kinahan live the life of high security and

stream caution. Everywhere he went he was always accompanied by

security guards. He was rarely photographed and never shared

personal information online. The Spanish surveillance teams had their

work cut out. Nevertheless they penetrated the cartel through a

series of wiretaps and what they discovered was astonishing. The

wiretaps revealed investments and business dealings stretching beyond

Europe to South America, South Africa, as well as the Cayman

Islands and Dubai. The police intelligence files show that

convicted Dublin criminal Freddie Thompson pictured here at the

funeral of the Hotel shooting victim was in charge of obtaining guns for

other members of the cartel, including Gary Hutch. The following

comes directly from the transcripts of those wiretaps.

The Kinahan spared no expense in training their lieutenants. The

wiretaps reveal how men are -- members of the Kinahan cartel

including Gary Hutch received training in special weapons and

tactics at a private military contractors facility in Austria.

This was a global cartel, prepared to defend itself with extreme

violence. And contained within these documents are incredible details

about the scale of ambition the gang had and the financial resources

available to it. Remember the cartel was shipping drugs around the world,

using shipping companies to unwittingly smuggled their

merchandise. So why not simply cut out the middleman and buy your own

transport? This is incredible. This says that at one point the cartel

decided to buy their own container ship.

Another security weakness for drug traffickers is the inspections

carried out at ports and marinas in Europe. The police files reveal how

at one point, Christy Kinahan suggested that the gangs simply by

their own marina. The wiretaps revealed the gang discussing how

their container ship would be used to report what they refer to as

sugar from South America. Here, Christy Kinahan talks to an

associate about bringing Ian another commodity from Asia, what they refer

to as rice. S it was an operation on a vast

scale. For several years, it must've seemed

like the perfect moneymaking criminal operation. Breathtaking in

its scope and size. And fire time, the Kinahans' greatest achievement

was to conduct business the kind of violence that would draw too much

attention. But in 2008, all of that changed. That year, a gang member,

Paddy Doyle, was suggested by the cartel of crossing them. The

decision was taken to kill him. He was being driven around Marbella by

his friend Gary Hutch when a gunman pulled up and shot it multiple

times. Gary Hutch escaped unharmed but had witnesses to -- witnessed at

close hand the consequences of betraying the cartel. What the

Kinahans didn't know was that by now, officers from Operation Shovel

were investigating their financial affairs and transactions. In 2009,

Belgian police were alerted to the suspicious transfer of funds into a

Belgian bank account. The money came from a Cyprus -based company linked

to Christy Kinahan. He had purchased three properties in Belgium, one of

them Spotlight understands was a small commercial building at the

behest of his wife, who wish to open the shop. On the basis of these

transactions, the Belgian police managed to convicted Christy Kinahan

of money-laundering, but by now, he was back in Spain.

The 25th of May 20 ten. The day the police decided to move against the

Kinahans. Europol had deployed three Mobile offices in Spain, the UK and

Ireland for the coordinated day of action against the cartel. Christy

Kinahan was wearing his boxer shorts when handcuffed by Spanish police

after they raided his Marbella apartment. At the end of that day,

they had in all been some 47 searches, total of 38 arrests across

Spain, the UK, Ireland and Bulgaria, 60 properties and 25 cars had been

seized, and 180 bank accounts frozen. When you look through the

files from Operation Shovel, the detail is astounding. There are

lists of bank accounts, companies said to be fronts the laundering

drug money, transcripts of wiretaps. It is all here. We've had these

files were less than two weeks. The Spanish authorities have had them

for six years. Six years in which there hasn't been a single

prosecution for drug trafficking, six years in which there have been

plenty of bodies on the streets of Dublin and Spain. In 2014, a Dublin

man, linked to the Kinahan cartel, was shot dead. Gerard Kavanagh was

sitting in that Irish bar. He was said to have just ordered a drink,

and a gunman burst in. Eyewitnesses claimed that he tried to flee, but

it was too late. Cracks were appearing in the

organisation. Gangsters who had once been loyal were going out on their

own, trying to set up their own operations. They were picked off one

by one, and the public started to notice. Marbella lawyer Antonio

Flores says that the Irish gang-related violence was causing

alarm. One thing you notice is the degree of how aggressive they are,

the violin. Traditionally, we have not had so many killings here in the

past as we are having now. Now just seems to be that, whenever there is

a dispute between gangs, then they just settle their scores with

killing someone. Now it was Gary Hutch's turn. Once trusted henchmen

of Daniel Kinahan's, he now fell under suspicion as a police

informant. Overnight, he became a marked man, with a price on his

head, Gary Hutch fled to Dublin. And it seems that he was saved by his

name. Even the Kinahans would think twice about killing a Hutch.

Instead, the two families negotiated. There was some sort of

truth organise whereby there was compensation paid of 200,000 euros

to the Kinahans to allow them to save face, and both sides walked

away from this. But then Gary Hutch made the biggest miscalculation of

his life. He decided to return to Spain, apparently to set up his own

empire. He must have felt that his name made him untouchable. It

didn't. In September last year, the Kinahan gang caught up with him.

Gary Hutch had just returned home after a morning jog when he was

confronted by a masked gunman. He tried to escape, and ended up

running out here, only to be chased around the swimming pool by the

gunman. He had survived two previous attempt on his life.

But he didn't survive this one. And it didn't stop there. Gerry Hutch,

the patriarch of the Hutch plan, was on holiday in Lanzarote when two

gunman entered a bar to kill him minutes after he had left. The

Kinahan cartel had just declared war. It is thought that last month's

Regecy Hotel attack was direct revenge for Gary Hutch's gas, and in

particular, attempts to kill his uncle, the Monk. But just days

later, the Kinahans seemingly struck back. Gerard Hutch's brother, Eddie

Hutch, an innocent man, was shot dead. Many believe Edward hutch was

an easy target, murdered because of his surname. A gang of at least four

men, locals say, shot him dead in the hallway of his apartment. I

wanted to speak with Daniel Kinahan, the man now said to run the cartel.

I'm on my way to MGM gym in Marbella. It is a location via

Daniel Kinahan is said to spend a lot of time when he's in Spain.

Are reporting a programme for the BBC, I was looking to speak to

Daniel Kinahan he's here. Daniel Kinahan isn't here today. The

receptionist on the desk claims he doesn't even speak English, and he

claims as well not to know Daniel Kinahan. It's quite easy in there

today, but clearly they don't want to speak to the press. I contacted

various people who I knew to be associates of Daniel Kinahan. I was

told he didn't want to talk. Then, on my last evening in Spain, I got a

call. And intermediaries for the Kinahan family said he wanted to

meet me in a bar in Marbella with no cameras. I went to meet him, and

what appeared to be several other gang members.

I've just returned from a meeting with an intermediary on the half of

the Kinahans. It's the first time they have spoken to anyone, albeit

through a third-party, the recent shootings. The source spoke

exclusively to Spotlight, and said that negotiations are currently in

process between the two rival factions. The source is especially

close to Daniel Kinahan, and described him as being as strong as

not. The source said that the whole situation is regrettable, and the

regret manifests from the fact that the Monk decided that a family event

was the right place to make his mark. The source also said that

going forward, the Kinahans can guarantee balance and fairness in

what already is a difficult situation. Clearly these remarks are

ambiguous. They could be interpreted as conciliatory or in a more

threatening way. Because Daniel Kinahan wouldn't meet with us, we

were not in a position to question him further as we would have done in

an interview. This is as much as the intermediary was prepared to say.

The big question is, given the scale of Operation Shovel, and the

existence of this information, that we now have an opposition while

almost 80 years on, as no one had been charged. -- almost eight years

on. Spotlight understands that in Spain, charges of drug and gun

trafficking for the Kynaston is -- Kinahans are unlikely.

Money-laundering remains the only offence they will be charged with.

Basically, Spain's criminal system is only fit for chicken thieves,

that was what the judge said. That summarises the criminal judicially.

Why is it so ineffective and so inefficient in dealing with cases?

The National Crime Agency told Spotlight that it does not routinely

confirm or deny the existence of investigations. In the Republic, the

Garda say that Operation Shovel investigation is ongoing. Michael

O'Sullivan is head of the Garda drugs and organised crime bureau. In

the last 12 months, millions of euros worth of drugs have been

seized from the cartel. Given the extent of Operation Shovel, why has

no one been charged? This is quite a long campaign against a number of

cartels, and it is another move by the police and law enforcement

agencies in respect of a criminal group, so it is impossible to say,

one job, nobody was arrested, and therefore it is a failure. It's not

over. It's never over. You like this week, the Gardy have raided numerous

properties in what they say is an ongoing investigation into drugs

gangs. It seems that the recent killings may have reignited the

remains of Operation Shovel, and that once again, the Kinahan cartel

is under pressure. What is clear now is that their organisation is more

than just a gang. It's an empire, with roots and assets across the

world. And one that may never be fully unravelled.