This article is the result of a collaboration with The Sunday Times. You can find their corresponding piece here.

Kinahan cartel leaders Daniel and Christy Kinahan have been photographed in Dubai, marking the most recent sighting of the wanted crime bosses since the US government put multi-million dollar bounties on their heads.

The footage was captured just weeks after Kinahan cartel lieutenant Sean McGovern was extradited from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Ireland, where he was charged with murder and directing the activities of a criminal organisation.

Filmed during a mixed martial arts (MMA) event in June, the images are the first visual proof that the drug cartel’s leadership — who fled from Spain to Dubai in 2016 — were still in hiding in the desert city as recently as last summer.

Christy Kinahan, 68, and his two sons, Daniel, 48, and Christopher Jr, 45 — the most senior members of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group — are wanted by authorities around the world. The three Irishmen have been sanctioned by the US government and are the subject of a collective $15 million reward for information leading to their arrest.

Bellingcat and The Sunday Times have previously revealed how Christy Kinahan left a trail of Google reviews exposing his movements and travel partners over a five year period. We also uncovered the gang’s links to a German businessman charged with trafficking cocaine in 2024, and to an Australian pilot who was killed during a failed drug run in South America last year.

Bellingcat discovered this new footage of the narco-traffickers after running a photo posted to social media of one of Daniel Kinahan’s adult sons — whose name was published last year — through face recognition search engine PimEyes.

It returned a professional photograph of Daniel Kinahan that was taken during the 971 Fighting Championship (971 FC) at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai’s City Walk district on June 14, 2025.

Pictured wearing a black top, baseball cap and glasses, he is sitting ringside next to the event’s founder and former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) athlete, Mounir “The Sniper” Lazzez.

(The image, which had been posted to a Dubai photography company’s website, was removed yesterday, hours after Bellingcat contacted a representative for the Kinahans to seek comment.)

A frame-by-frame sweep of official footage and user-generated content from the arena revealed that Christy Kinahan, the founder of the eponymous drug cartel, was also among the reported 6,000 spectators at the fight night.

The elusive crime boss — nicknamed “The Dapper Don” — is seen wearing a Panama hat, blue Polo shirt, white trousers and blue trainers.

These images of the cartel leaders are the first to emerge since Bellingcat published the most recent known photograph of Christopher Kinahan Jr in 2024, captured during a meeting with his father in a Dubai restaurant the year before.

The new footage of Daniel Kinahan marks the first time he has been pictured since the US government levied sanctions on the transnational organised crime group in April 2022.

The Man in the Panama Hat

The Kinahan cartel is one the world’s most notorious criminal organisations. Worth an estimated €1.5 billion, it is involved in drug trafficking, arms smuggling and money laundering operations around the world. Investigators have also linked the gang to Iran’s intelligence services and the Lebanon-based Islamic militant group Hezbollah.

It was reportedly part of a “Super Cartel”, a criminal network that controlled much of Europe’s cocaine trade. Five of the network’s key members have been arrested since 2017, but one — Daniel Kinahan — remains at large.

Daniel Kinahan, who authorities say is responsible for managing the cartel’s vast drug trafficking operations, has been heavily involved in combat sports since the early 2010s. He co-founded MTK Global, a boxing management firm that signed high-profile boxers including former world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.

Kinahan has previously been pictured with boxers and at sporting events, but there have been no confirmed public sightings of him in years. In 2022, after the US sanctions were announced, MTK Global shut down. With multi-million dollar bounties on their heads, the Kinahans fled their luxurious Dubai homes and have kept a low profile since.

After discovering the photo of Daniel Kinahan from the 971 Fighting Championship, Bellingcat searched for additional footage to verify the gangland figure was in the crowd. Multiple videos confirmed he was in attendance, seated in the stadium’s VIP section.

During this process, we also identified a man who strongly resembled his father and the founder of the drugs cartel, Christy Kinahan.

This man and Daniel Kinahan were seated at opposite ends of the front row, immediately around the eight-sided cage, on white sofas designated for VIPs.

We analysed the official footage from the event, a more than six-hour video from sports streaming service TrillerTV. In most of the footage in which the man is visible, his hand partially obscures his face.

However, it was clear that the man shared many of the physical characteristics of Christy Kinahan, including a similar build, facial features, and hair colour and length. The official live-stream, as well as footage posted to social media, showed his appearance was consistent with that of a man in his late sixties.

The man was also wearing a white Panama hat with blue band, a style the cartel leader has been known to wear.

In the image below, posted to social media six months before the 971 FC event, a close relative of Christy Kinahan poses with a Panama hat and wrote in the caption that it belonged to him. Bellingcat has not identified this person because they have no known involvement in crime.

Additionally, the person seated next to the man in the Panama hat throughout the fight night strongly resembled one of Christy Kinahan’s immediate family members. Bellingcat has not identified this person because they have no known involvement in crime.

Two individuals seated behind the man also closely resembled people that Bellingcat and its publishing partner The Sunday Times have linked to the cartel.

It was subsequently confirmed that the man in the Panama hat was Christy Kinahan. The Sunday Times confirmed his identity with three sources who either knew the cartel leader personally or have investigated his activities.

Fight Night, Familiar Faces

Christy Kinahan has served prison time in Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium but has evaded capture for more than a decade. He has received anti-surveillance training to conceal his identity and avoid drawing attention and, in recent years, used aliases to fly under the radar.

But Kinahan is visible throughout the entire live-stream of the 971 Fighting Championship — adding up to the longest known footage of the cartel leader that has ever been made public.

The Sunday Times reports today that his presence at a high profile event that live-streamed online was uncharacteristic for a criminal who has made a career of escaping detection.

“His appearance in the open, seated in such a public place, is all the more remarkable because it is so likely to draw attention, a stark departure for Kinahan, who typically operates like a ghost,” it said.

Bellingcat’s analysis showed that Christy Kinahan was in his seat at the very beginning of the event, when the VIP area was almost entirely empty, and stayed until the end of the last fight, more than six hours later.

He was also seen standing, walking and communicating with other people during the fight night. Kinahan was observed talking to 971 FC founder Mounir Lazzez, who sat next to him during the first round of the Junior Karanta vs Oli Thompson bout. At one point, Lazzez tapped Kinahan on the arm.

Daniel Kinahan appears to have spent less time in the arena, and is first seen in his seat almost four hours into the event. He is captured talking to Lazzez in this photo, taken shortly after Kurdistani fighter Namo Fazil won his bout.

Daniel Kinahan is not seen again after Irish fighter James Gallagher won his bout an hour later, which is when the professional photo of Kinahan and Lazzez was taken.

Tunisian-born Lazzez lives in Dubai, where he is listed as a part-owner of a gym called the 971 MMA & Fitness Academy. He launched the 971 Fighting Championship in 2024, promising to “change the face” of combat sports.

Footage from the first 971 FC event, at The Agenda arena in Dubai in May 2024, was not clear enough to identify people in the crowd, but social media posts confirm that an immediate relative of Daniel Kinahan’s was present.

Lazzez has publicly backed Daniel Kinahan despite the global law enforcement efforts to apprehend him. In April 2022, days after the sanctions against the cartel were announced, he thanked Kinahan in a post-fight speech and subsequent media interview in Las Vegas. Lazzez has spoken about their relationship on multiple occasions, including describing Kinahan as a “good friend, brother and advisor”.

Bellingcat contacted Mounir Lazzez by phone, email and social media but did not receive a response.

Bellingcat also identified the people sitting on either side of Daniel Kinahan when the professional photograph was taken. They are a man and a woman who were both involved behind the scenes at 971 FC.

The man, who has previously worked in boxing promotion, had a senior role at the Coca-Cola Arena in June last year, including during the fight night, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The woman, who lists her most recent employment as an MMA event coordinator, appeared in footage posted to 971 FC’s social media that described her as being part of the production team. She is tagged in multiple posts about the event, including from an MMA fighter who participated on the night. The woman is also seen hugging Daniel Kinahan, talking to his adult son and sitting next to Mounir Lazzez.

This means that Kinahan, once a “major player” in the combat sports business, was surrounded by the 971 FC founder and two people who worked at the event. 

The man and woman did not respond to Bellingcat’s questions. There is no suggestion they are involved in any criminal activity.

No clear footage of the younger Kinahan meeting with his father was identified at the 971 FC event. However, during a mid-event performance by American rapper Lloyd Banks, shortly after the professional photo was taken, Daniel Kinahan’s seat was empty and a person wearing similar clothing (light coloured trousers, a dark top and baseball cap) is seen moving along the front row, greeting people, and embracing Christy Kinahan. 

The identity of this person could not be verified due to the low quality of the footage.

The Sunday Times reports today that the Kinahans continue to enjoy a VIP lifestyle in Dubai despite the UAE’s insistence that it has taken action against the cartel. “These findings suggest that the imposition of American sanctions has failed to significantly weaken the cartel and may, in fact, have made it more resilient,” it said.

“The Emiratis claim to have frozen €200 million in assets across UAE-registered businesses and mapped the organisation’s front companies and proxies; however, the Kinahans’ continued ability to operate in the open suggests these enforcement efforts have yet to strike a decisive blow.”

An extradition treaty between Ireland and the UAE was ratified in 2025, but to date it has only been enforced on Kinahan cartel lieutenant Sean McGovern, who was returned on an Irish military plane last May.

In December, Detective Chief Superintendent Séamus Boland, the head of Ireland’s drugs and organised crime bureau, said investigations into the Kinahan cartel were ongoing and that he hoped 2026 would be a “significant year”.

He was speaking ahead of the 10 year anniversary of Dublin’s Regency Hotel attack, when a rival gang attempted to assassinate Daniel Kinahan at a boxing weigh-in. The attack left Kinahan gang member David Byrne dead and sparked a bloody gangland feud that has resulted in 18 deaths.

Bellingcat contacted a representative for the Kinahans to seek comment but did not receive a response.

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Connor Plunkett, Peter Barth, Beau Donelly and John Mooney contributed to this article.

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