Following the arrest last week of reputed Irish drug boss Christy Kinahan in Spain's Costa del Sol, police are predicting "a massive drug shortage in Ireland in the coming months" and "unprecedented gangland violence as Irish drug gangs engage in a bloody power struggle" as reported by Donal Thornton for Irish Central: "It is believed that Kinahan neutralized practically all his competition in Ireland and had offered drug gangs cheaper drugs if they worked together and stopped tit for tat gangland murders." Apparently Kinahan's alleged international drug operation was quite profitable, and authorities claim he had assembled investment properties worth 500 million euros in Brazil and 150 million euros in Spain as reported by Conor Lally for The Irish Times:
The property portfolio in Brazil is comprised of six leisure complexes and a string of residential properties, with a combined value of €500 million, Spanish authorities say. In Spain some 60 properties – including villas, apartments and business premises – have already been frozen in the first part of an assets confiscation case there. The properties in Spain are valued at about €150 million by the authorities. * * * There are other properties in Ireland, England, Dubai, South Africa and Belgium.
Kinahan and his organization also are suspected of involvement with the weapons trade, human trafficking and money laundering.
