The Kinahan cartel is allegedly employing ruthless north African thugs to target dock workers at Europe’s busiest ports.
It is claimed they attempt to pay them up to €60,000 to allow drug shipments into an EU free zone.
But if employees at ports such as Rotterdam in Holland, Antwerp in Belgium and Hamburg in Germany refuse the cash, the gang threaten to kill them and their families.
READ MORE: Christy Kinahan Snr and two sons could be extradited from Dubai back to Ireland
We can today reveal how the ruthless Irish mob have managed their drug trafficking operations for years, moving narcotics sourced from South America into the European market for millions in profit.
Senior gardai and Interpol have established that Moroccan thugs work with Daniel Kinahan’s two main intermediaries in Europe, a Serbian – who we revealed last weekend is on the run from law enforcement – and an Albanian man.
The shipments in 40ft containers originate from the cartel’s business partners in Colombia, where a kilo of cocaine is worth a few thousand euro.
But by the time they are brought on their 5,000-mile journey to EU ports, the price of the narcotic has already skyrocketed to around €70,000 a kilo.
The product can later be diluted up to six times with various mixing agents to maximise its price.
The cocaine is wrapped, concealed and hidden in clever ways in the containers, with Irish investigators seizing €35 million worth last year which was disguised as charcoal.
Once in Europe, the Moroccan thugs attempt to pay off or intimidate dock workers into marking the containers as being part of the Schengen Area agreement.
This allows them to be driven around most European countries without any major scrutiny or border control checks, thus playing a key role in the cocaine eventually landing in Ireland, the UK, Spain and elsewhere.
Once it reaches its destination, it is filtered down to local gangs who pay the cartel for the drugs they then sell on the streets.
A senior source said: “This is the very complex way in which the Kinahans work.
“Daniel has been dealing at the very top table in terms of drug trafficking, building relationships with incredibly dangerous but successful individuals in this business.
“His role can perhaps look hands off but it actually highlights how senior he and his gang are on a global level in drug trafficking.”
Kinahan, 44, his father Christy and brother Christy Jnr are lying low in their Dubai bolthole after being hit by US government sanctions and having a $5million bounty put on their heads. They also had their assets frozen in the UAE.
A huge crackdown in Colombia has also seen a fall-off in production, impacting on the cartel’s business.
Anti-drug officers are flooding the coca plantations in the hills of the South American country in a major clampdown on the cocaine trade.
It is a risky job, as gangs that supply the Kinahans surround their land with military grade landmines which can maim or kill police officers as well as innocent farmers.
But late last year they claimed their biggest scalp since Pablo Escobar with the arrest of Dairo Antonio Usuga – better known as Otoniel – following a seven-year manhunt.
The leader of the Gulf Clan and Daniel Kinahan had built up a business relationship.
However Otoniel, who like Kinahan had a $5million reward put up by US authorities to bring him to justice, is now being extradited to the States to face drug trafficking charges. Sources say while this did not wipe out the South American supply for Kinahan and other drug barons, it has been a major blow to it.
The war on the Kinahans has seen unprecedented co-operation on a global scale between police forces.
That is also reflected in Colombia, the source of much of the world’s cocaine, as authorities are working alongside British and American drug enforcement officers. A senior Garda liaison officer is based there.
They all share intelligence with Interpol, the global police agency.
Another senior source explained: “The co-operation is key to stopping the Kinahans and their ilk. You have police forces all over the world carrying out operations to disrupt the supply of cocaine but this is tackling it at its source.”
The Kinahans, and four of their associates named by US authorities, remain free men. But the investigations are continuing.
Since the announcement of sanctions two weeks ago, gardai and their international partners have been probing new lines of inquiry.
Investigators are also working to identify more of their businesses through which they have laundered money as well as other associates who may have gone under the radar.
Get breaking news to your inbox by signing up to our newsletter .
