The real reason crime boss Daniel Kinahan is being flown home on the Government jet revealed as UNPRECEDENTED security operation launched ahead of Ireland's most wanted criminal's court appearance

By DEBBIE MCCANN and JOHN DRENNAN Published: 22:56, 8 August 2026 | Updated: 22:57, 8 August 2026 Ireland's most wanted criminal – cartel boss Daniel Kinahan – is expected to arrive at the Air Corps headquarters at Baldonnel at 6pm today – on the new €53million Government jet. Kinahan will then be escorted under armed guard to the Criminal Courts of Justice complex in Dublin, which was this weekend being swept for suspect devices as part of the biggest extradition operation in the history of the State. The Irish Mail on Sunday’s pictures show the Dassault Falcon 6X jet taking off from Baldonnel, Co. Dublin, just after 10.30am yesterday. The flight took just over eight-and-a-half hours, with flight radar information showing the aircraft landed at Dubai Airport at 22.01 (19.01 Irish time) last night. As reported by the MoS last weekend, there were significant concerns among Coalition leaders over the use of the new Government jet to transport the drug cartel boss back to Ireland. However, it was ultimately decided to use the jet – which entered service last December – because it is faster than other Air Corps planes and does not need to stop for refuelling. Former Independent TD and Army Ranger Cathal Berry said that, while the optics of using the Government jet for such a purpose are ‘not great’, it was ‘the only option we have to complete the transfer in one flight’. The military analyst told the MoS: ‘It would have looked better if we had something that had a more military grade appearance… but these are the consequences of decades of under-investment. The Government jet is the only option that has legs. It is the most prudent way of getting back without risk.’ A new extradition treaty between Ireland the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was put in place last year, which meant that Kinahan could be extradited once the Director of Public Prosecutions had made a decision to charge the most wanted man in Irish gangland history. Daniel Kinahan will be escorted under armed guard to the Criminal Courts of Justice complex in Dublin once the Government  jet lands in Dublin this evening The 49-year-old Dubliner is facing a charge of directing organised crime, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. A massive security operation will swing into place as soon as Kinahan touches down at Baldonnel’s Casement Aerodrome in southwest County Dublin. He will be immediately met by gardaí from the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau and will be formally charged on the tarmac at Baldonnel. It will mark Kinahan’s first time back in the country since February 15, 2016, when he returned for his friend and fellow gang member David Byrne’s funeral. Byrne had been shot dead in the infamous Regency Hotel shooting 10 days earlier. Following his arrest, Kinahan will be taken to the Special Criminal Court by armed gardaí and military personnel who will travel in convoy. The MoS has learned overtime was offered to gardaí from 3pm today for the unprecedented operation. A team from the garda’s Emergency Response Unit is being deployed alongside the Air Support Unit and the National Surveillance Unit. A new bomb-proof and bullet-proof escort van purchased by the Irish Prison Service will then be used to transport him from the court to Portlaoise Prison. The Government Jet leaving Baldonnell Aerodrome this morning on its way to Dubai to collect Kinahan The gang boss – who has enjoyed a life of luxury in Dubai over the past decade – will be housed the A5 unit in the A block in Portlaoise Prison. The designated block – described as a ‘prison within a prison’ – is for maximum-security inmates, subversives and high-profile gangland criminals. Kinahan’s close associate, Seán McGovern, who was also extradited from Dubai last year, is serving a 24-year sentence at the same jail for directing the Kinahan cartel’s activities in Dublin. One senior security source said Kinahan will be Ireland’s most ‘notorious’ prisoner ever. ‘We have had them all – [John] Gilligan, Dominic McGlinchey, the killers of Veronica Guerin, [Malcolm] MacArthur – but this is the most notorious one of all,’ the source said. ‘It is like a return to the Troubles when all the Provos were here. They at least are disciplined, or could be disciplined by their own. This lot are completely different creatures,’ they added. Another source familiar with the ‘huge’ security operation to bring Kinahan home added: ‘On the Dubai side, it will be the usual level of security, but on our side it will be an ERU [Elite Response Unit], NSU [National Surveillance Unit], and Air Support job… No one will be taking any chances here. 'Hellhole': Kinahan has been locked up in Dubai's Central Prison ‘Given who we’re dealing with here, we must plan for any eventuality. He’s so seriously connected, gardaí have to plan for the possibility that his associates might try to break him free while under escort.’ Kinahan has lived in Dubai since 2016, when the rival Hutch gang tried to murder him at the Regency Hotel in north Dublin during a boxing tournament weigh-in. In an interview with a controversial podcaster this week, Kinahan said he is ‘looking forward to getting home’ as he complained about prison conditions in Dubai. The cartel boss predicted: ‘I reckon I’ll be home in the next 48 hours or so or… definitely by Monday.’ He went on to say he was ‘reflecting’ on his life and how he ended up in this situation. ‘I reckon security’s going to be crazy and I am sitting here reflecting in a little tiny box, little phone box, s***hole box, and I am thinking what happened, how I got here and all the stuff that has happened in my life.’ Kinahan also told the podcast he still has the ‘same friends’ he had when he left Ireland 25 years ago, and that it is going to be ‘nice’ to be home, albeit behind bars. The cartel leader – who has also had US sanctions imposed on him – moaned that the perception people have of him comes from the ‘media’ and said he is proud to be from Dublin’s Oliver Bond flats. He will be transferred to Portlaoise Prison later today ‘I was always proud to be Irish and I wanted to, you know, do good things, big things. ‘Obviously, life didn’t go that way for me. All the stuff and all the media. What people think of me and the perception they have.’ Concerns were expressed this weekend over the ability of the Irish Prison Service to contain the leader of one of Europe’s biggest drug cartels. There are also fears that Kinahan may be able to continue to direct gangland activities from inside his prison cell. Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín warned that our overcrowded prisons are already ‘under enormous pressure’ and that the incarceration of Kinahan poses a challenge to a system ‘already on its knees’. The Meath West TD told the MoS: ‘The Government is releasing hundreds of prisoners every week to just keep the lid on things. ‘Concerns have been growing across the system over prisoner safety and prison officer safety. ‘Daniel Kinahan, given the scale of his notoriety, poses a real challenge to a system that is already on its knees.’ Independent TD Carol Nolan, whose Offaly constituency neighbours Portlaoise, said she has ‘very serious concerns’ that such a high-profile prisoner could make prison staff the target of ‘direct or indirect collateral harm’ in any ongoing transnational organised crime feuds. She told the MoS: ‘I don’t doubt the professionalism of our prison staff, but this is a special case that would demand urgent guarantees around elevated and constant levels of security management.’ Meanwhile, Social Democrats justice spokesman Gary Gannon –whose Dublin Central constituency is the heartland of the Kinahan empire – said: ‘I would be happier if he was not in the Government jet – everyone would be.’ But he acknowledged: ‘The security threat means that, if it is a necessity that he [Daniel Kinahan] be returned in this fashion, so he can face justice for the devastation wrought upon communities, then we have to accept that.’ Mr Gannon added: ‘We should bear in mind that other major criminals have escaped while being transported.’ A senior Government source described the decision to bring Kinahan home to face justice on the Government jet as ‘a deplorable necessity’. They told the MoS: ‘The reality is we have to put our best face forward on this. We have to put our game face on and make it clear that we always get our man, and he won’t go missing on his travels to his new home in Portlaoise.’ One minister said of the operation: ‘We will have air and sea control, guns everywhere. It will be a ring of steel that has not been seen since the Provos.’ The Irish Prison Service said it does not comment on security or operational matters. Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.