Spanish authorities want Christy Kinahan to be given a jail sentence of up to four years if he is found guilty of charges arising out of Operation Shovel.
A prosecutor has recommended the “Dapper Don” be caged if convicted of trying to use one false British passport and another using the identity of an Irishman who died in 2002. The Irish Mirror can also reveal authorities are seeking a sentence for senior Kinahan lieutenant Ross Browning of two years, nine months and one day for alleged illegal arms possession. He is a close pal of mob boss Daniel Kinahan.
Kinahan Snr and Browning are two of five men who have had sentences proposed against them. It comes 12 years after Operation Shovel. Officers in Spain spent two years following and listening to the gang –whose headquarters were based in the Costa del Sol – before Europe-wide raids were carried out in May 2010.
Read more: Kinahan cartel furious at 'launderer' for going against strict instructions
However, the major charges of money laundering and criminal association against Christy Snr, 65, and sons Daniel, 45, and 42-year-old Christy Jnr were later dropped. Documents seen by the Irish Mirror confirm the prosecutor in the Marbella area, attached to courtroom no 3 in Estepona, has proposed Christy Snr faces jail time if convicted on two false passport charges.
The first relates to an incident at Madrid Airport in April 2010. The drug baron – who has no criminal record in Spain but is a convicted heroin trafficker in Ireland – is alleged to have identified himself as Michael Leslie Swift when attempting to board a flight to Rio de Janeiro.
The document reads: “He supplied false documentation to that effect, having already used said false identity when reserving the flight and obtaining his boarding pass.
“The false passport was British, in the name of Michael Leslie Swift, born in 1959 in Sheffield.”
The second charge relates to a passport allegedly found in the town of Benahavis in Malaga in June 2010. The prosecution claim Kinahan Snr’s photo was inserted onto a passport in the name of Thomas Richard Hasset, who died in Ireland on March 23, 2002.
Two other men, Robert Philips and James Naughton, were named in the document and offences alleged against them. It read: “On June 15, 2010, at 1.55am, Robert E Philips and James G Naughton were surprised by police from Benahavis near a spot where minutes beforehand an Irish passport in the name of Thomas Richard Hasset (who died in Ireland on March 23, 2002), but in which the photo of Christopher Vincent Kinahan Sr had been inserted.”
The prosecutor also alleges that Browning, 37, was nabbed with a Glock 19 semi-automatic pistol.
They said: “After entering and searching the home of Ross Browning in Benahavis on May 27, 2010, a Glock 19 semi-automatic pistol whose serial number had been removed and which had been converted for cartridges of 8’8 x 19mm Parabellum ammunition was found ‘in good condition’. Ballistics reports revealed it was fitted with a safety on the trigger and its mechanical function was correct. It was capable of being fired.”
Authorities are seeking two sentences of two years for Kinahan if he is convicted of both alleged false passport offences, to run consecutively, along with two fines of €12 per day for nine months, amounting to just over €6,000.
They are seeking the same sentence of two years and a fine of around €3,000 for both Naughton and Philips. It is not yet clear whether any of the men will be required to attend their trial in person or whether it might be held in absentia.
Locating Kinahan Snr and securing his extradition from Dubai could prove difficult, although Spain has had an extradition treaty in place with the UAE since 2010. A fifth man, alleged Kinahan associate Jasvinder “Jas” Kamoo, is also accused of fixing false licence plates on a Mercedes C180 car. Prosecutors are seeking to have him barred from enter-ing Spain for seven years if convicted.
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