A BICYCLE shop with a few cafe tables in its corner, it’s hardly the place you’d expect filthy rich narco godfather Christy Kinahan to hang out.
Known as Dapper Don, cartel overlord Kinahan has a reputation for enjoying the finer things in life.
Yet, the understated Cycle Bistro has been a regular haunt for one of the world’s most wanted men.
Investigating the Kinahan clan’s secret life in their Dubai bolthole, I eased myself onto the table where Christy and mobster son Christopher Junior were caught on camera enjoying a meal.
On a quiet back street in the upmarket Jumeirah district, the neighbourhood bistro sits among palm-fringed, whitewashed villas that resemble suburbs in Miami or Marbella.
Dubai was always the Kinahans’ kind of town.
They first pitched up here in 2016 looking to escape a blood feud with rival gangsters, launder serious bundles of cash and escape the scrutiny of British, Irish and Spanish law enforcement.
For Christy, born to middle class Irish parents in Perivale, West London, had founded one of the globe’s most infamous cartels.
Learning Spanish, Dutch and Russian while in prison, the languages would serve him well when he took his place among international mafia groups on the Costa del Sol in 2001.
Immaculately dressed and able to affect a well-spoken English or upper class Irish accent, he became known as the Dapper Don.
Daniel and Christopher Junior, his two boys with Jean Boylan, a one time cleaner at a Dublin police station, would soon follow him out to the sun as his drugs empire prospered.
But, as the Iranian missiles rain down on Dubai, the powerful family are trapped in their sun-kissed haven and haven’t left the UAE for four years, for fear of arrest.
Family business
Daniel was said to have been running drugs for his father by his late teens. Associates would describe him as an “arrogant f***”.
In 2009 the nepo gangster was named in a leaked US diplomatic cable as “an Irish businessman involved in narcotrafficking throughout Europe.”
It is Daniel who is believed to head up the day-to-day operations of the cartel, while Christopher Jnr was more cerebral and looked after the laundering side of the business.
Today it is a criminal empire that could be worth north of £800m, part of a wider network that controls as much as a third of Europe’s cocaine exports.
In 2016 a bloody feud with the rival Hutch gang erupted in Dublin after they tried to murder Daniel at the city’s Regency hotel that year, and in the blood-letting that followed, eighteen people were murdered in the tit-for-tat violence.
It was time to shift operations to Dubai where Christy reinvented himself as a consultant named Chris Vincent, living in Al Wasl with Turkish wife Neslihan Yildirim, living a life of luxury.
Mob meals
The Kinahan cartel is renowned for providing anti-surveillance training to its members yet a fascinating glimpse in Christy’s shadowy life came when he seemingly became lax about his own digital footprint.
Using the name Christopher Vincent, the mobster left a series of reviews on Google for plush restaurants and hotels in Dubai and across the world.
Dubai has long been a sunny place for shady people. Since arriving here in 2016, the Kinahans have managed to disappear among the legions of wanted criminals, fame-hungry influencers, holidaying sun seekers and tax-avoiding super rich.
Yet, in the digital world, no one can truly hide. Their online footprint allowed me to take a journey through their favoured Dubai haunts and construct a detailed picture of the lifestyle of an on-the-run international crime lord.
First stop was the unassuming Cycle Bistro in pleasant Jumeirah. In March 2023, Dublin-born Christy, 68, dined here and was suitably impressed.
“Service was good and the staff were pleasant and helpful,” he wrote in his Google review. “The menu caters for NON-vegan, dairy and sugar.
“I had the acai bowl, followed by eggs with almond bread and green salad. My meal was well presented and tasty. I give this establishment five stars.”
Surrounded by bicycles for sale and accessories, I sampled the same £10 acai bowl as the hoodlum and it was indeed a very enjoyable meal.
Kinahan was so impressed he vowed to “definitely return” to sample other items on the menu.
I’ve heard about them but never seen them
Local taxi driver
The Gourmet Gangster was good to his word. Two months on, he and son Christopher Jr were captured dining there in a photo uploaded to the restaurant’s social media accounts.
It was a revealing snap shot of a family on the run.
For Christy Jnr, 45, is also a key player in the Kinahan cartel which has flooded Britain with drugs and guns for two decades, according to the National Crime Agency. Swarthy, his hair thinning, Christy Jr is said to be a key player in the cartel’s finance and logistics.
Family life
Leaving behind the low key charms of the Cycle Bistro, I head for the City Walk area – close to where his father is said to live in the upscale Al Wasl in neighbourhood.
Its boulevards are dotted with elegant cafes and indie boutiques, for clan patriarch Christy is a cultivated man whose pockets are bulging with cash. The organised crime group he founded is estimated to be worth £835m.
I showed snaps of the Kinahans to my Indian cab driver who spent five years working in a south London phone shop.
“The Irish guys? I’ve heard about them but never seen them,” he tells me. “There’s lots of guys around here that look like that.”
For Dubai is bursting at the seams with jet-setting oligarchs, moneyed business titans and flash ne’er-do-wells.
Close to the world’s tallest building, the 2,717 feet Burj Khalifa skyscraper, City Walk is described as an “open-air lifestyle destination” in tourist bumph. Attractions include The Green Planet – an indoor rainforest – plus boutique stores and alfresco dining.
It was here that Christy Snr penned his first Google review as Christopher Vincent in 2019.
Visiting New York chain eatery Bareburger, Christy Snr gave it a three-star review.
A month later he was back in the chic shopping precinct, writing: “Wonderful place to stroll around, particularly in the evening, lots of restaurants to choose from. Family (child) friendly, relaxed chilled out atmosphere.
“I unreservedly rate this area five-star but not cheap.”
Nearby is the Coca Cola Arena, where two of the crime clan were most recently caught on camera in an investigation by the Sunday Times and open source journalism experts Bellingcat.
The Sun’s award-winning podcast
The Sun’s Kinahans Downfall podcast is the follow-up to the international smash hit The Kinahans.
Millions tuned in to the first series which told the story of how the “Dapper Don” Christopher Snr rose to the top of the international criminal foodchain.
It came to an end in 2023, shortly after the US hit them with sanctions and slapped a $15million bounty on their head.
Kinahans Downfall, narrated by The Irish Sun’s Damien Lane, reveals how the gang’s wealth has only grown since then.
But it also reveals how police managed to dismantle the gang back in Ireland – with cops taking down their associates one by one.
Listen to the ten-episode series on Apple, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts.
Christy Snr – who has a $5m US bounty on his head – was living up to his Dapper Don image.
Grey-haired and sporting a Panama hat, blue polo shirt and white trousers, he resembled a retired City gent or ageing diplomat in a tropical posting.
Reclined in a large, comfortable, white VIP seat, he was among 6,000 fight fans there to watch the 971 Fighting Championship, an extreme form of mixed martial arts.
Casually ordering drinks from waiters and chatting to others in the crowd, the wanted man watched the fighting for six hours. When cameras were pointed in his direction during the six-hour contest, he discreetly covered his face with his hand.
Nearby, also in the expensive seats, was a younger man who was less coy.
Wearing a light blue baseball cap and glasses, Christy’s brutish son Daniel Kinahan, 48, was openly enjoying the bouts. Like his father and brother, one time boxing promoter Daniel is a wanted man.
Although discreetly sitting apart, when the action broke for a performance by rapper Lloyd Banks, father and son embraced one another.
His online reviews revealed a taste for the high life, detailing trips to the Dubai Rolex store, business class travel on Emirates and “Platinum Ambassador” status on an international hotel group’s rewards program.
Our next stop on the Kinahan trail was Tasha’s restaurant in Dubai Marina.
Looking like a villain from Central Casting, a thick-set, man with slicked back grey hair sat alone on a table munching a huge cigar. Despite Dubai being a target for Iranian kamikaze drones and ballistic missiles, many of its edgy population remain.
A perfect spot for people watching, Christy awarded the establishment three stars in 2022.
Yet the security-conscious drug trafficker slipped up. When he posted photos to go with his review, one showed his reflection in a nearby window.
Super cartel
Another taxi ride brings us to the iconic Burj Al Arab hotel. An unofficial seven-star hotel, it boasts 24 carat gold leaf interior and 24/7 butler service.
It was here in 2017 that Daniel married glamorous Caoimhe Robinson. Being it was a Kinahan gathering, the shindig doubled as a mob boss summit.
The Kinahans might have access to vast amounts of cash but the reality is that they continue to live in the desert and can’t go anywhere
Stephen Breen,
Their guest list would have raised eyebrows in most countries as it was packed full of some of the world’s most powerful gangsters and drug lords.
Those who made the cut included Richard Vega, a Chilean cocaine smuggler; Raffaele Imperiale of the Italian Camorra; Ridouan Taghi, the Dutch-Moroccan gangster; and Edin Gacanin of the Balkan “Tito and Dino” cartel.
Together they formed what was dubbed the Super Cartel which investigators would go on to say control a third of Europe’s cocaine trade.
The Kinahans appeared untouchable – then in 2022 the US Treasury sanctioned the Kinahan Organized Crime Group, offering a collective $15m for tips leading to Christy and his sons’ arrest.
Since then the three have remained in the UAE while the cartel boss stopped his Google reviews in 2023. All the while, Daniel’s wife Caoimhe escaped the sanctions leaving her free to spend as she pleases.
Leaked documents revealed she has been purchasing and selling several properties in the UAE.
Among those was a 20,000 square foot villa worth a cool $2.1million, and another luxurious property in the Parkway Vistas community for £3.6million that went on to sell for £4.6million.
The US documents gave Daniel’s own address as the luxury Palm Jumeirah complex.
Shaped like a palm tree – its ‘leaves’ stretch out into the blue Gulf waters – David Beckham once owned a property here.
In 27C heat, shoppers in its high end mall shook their heads when I asked if they had seen Daniel. It’s a neighbourhood packed with beautiful people and extravagant wealth. Yet, could the gangster’s place in the sun soon be in jeopardy?
Irish police have also sent two files to the Director of Public Prosecutions hoping to bring charges against Daniel in connection with a murder and a plot to kill during the Hutch feud.
A decision on whether to charge is expected soon.
The Irish Sun’s Crime Editor Stephen Breen told me: “The reason they went to the UAE was because there was no extradition treaty with Ireland but that has now changed.”
The co-author of books The Cartel and Kinahan Assassins, he added: “The Kinahans might have access to vast amounts of cash but the reality is that they continue to live in the desert and can’t go anywhere.”
Their Dubai sanctuary is now a cage with golden bars.
