Tuesday, 25 May 2010

Christopher ‘Christy’ Kinahan, who was arrested at his luxury villa in Estepona.


Christopher "Christy" Kinahan , 53, is said to be the network’s boss.
He was arrested on the coast at Estepona at the £10m villa he has lived in for the past few years.
Kinahan is thought to have been behind a bet-to-lose horse-racing scam in the UK in 2004, in which top jockey Kieren Fallon and others were eventually acquitted when an Old Bailey trial collapsed people were arrested in total in the operation which also saw arrests in Dublin and London.More than 20 members of an international criminal organisation have been arrested today, Tuesday, on the Costa del Sol, and there were also dawn raids in London and Dublin. In total at least 32 have been arrested in total in an operation which continues open, so more arrests have not been ruled out.
Reports indicate that British gang were supplying firearms and drugs on the Costa del Sol where they had their base.
750 officers from the U.K., Ireland and Spain, took part in the swoops, the largest ever carried out by Britain’s SOCA, Serious Organised Crime Agency.The boss of the group has been named as 53 year old Christopher ‘Christy’ Kinahan, who was arrested at his luxury villa in Estepona. Reports indicate that he has lived there for some years and is the man behind a bet to lose horse racing scam in the UK in 2004. Jockey Kieren Fallon and others were acquitted at the Old Bailey when the trial there collapsed.Kinahan’s right hand man, John Cunningham, and Kinaham’s sons Christy Jr. and Daniel were also arrested. Cunningham was found guilty in 1986 of kidnapping Jennifer Guinness in Ireland.The gang is accused of being a major drugs supplier into the UK and the rest of Europe, and of supplying firearms to inner city gangs in the UK.There are also reports that the gang offered money laundering facilities to other criminal groups, with building projects involved in this.Several Spanish lawyers have also been arrested today in connection with the money laundering allegations. There are also reports of more searches in Marbella, Estepona and Fuengirola.
It’s thought that Spanish police had been watching the group for the past year, and that a code used by the criminals had been cracked. ‘Leaves’ were banknotes, ‘Computers’ were guns, ‘Waiters’ for weapons, and ‘Cars’ for drugs.
Spanish Interior Minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, speaking in Warsaw, said that an operation was underway against the Irish mafia on the Costa del Sol, and that Irish, British and Spanish police were taking part along with Europol. The Government’s Sub Delegate for Málaga, Hilario López Luna, also confirmed the police swoops by the Spanish UDYCO specialist units.

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