A key member of the Kinahan organised crime cartel has been arrested at his home in the Costa del Sol in Spain.
Mancunian Johnny Morrissey, who was identified by US authorities in April as an alleged money launderer and cartel enforcer was detained in an operation involving the Spanish Civil Guard, US Drug Enforcement Agency and Gardaí.
His wife Nicola, CEO of Nero Vodka, identified as one of three businesses linked to organised crime in April, was also arrested by armed police.
Morrissey known in the underworld as ‘Johnny Cash‘ fled Ireland more than 20 years ago after alleged involvement in a plot to harm a Criminal Assets Bureau officer.
He was allegedly laundering €350,000 a day, has been arrested in Spain. Spanish authorities believe he may have laundered more than €200M in the past 18 months alone!
US sanctions announced in April mean US banks, financial institutions, companies and other organisations cannot do business with any of the seven sanctioned Kinahan cartel members or the three named businesses and any cash they have in the US or US banks worldwide can be frozen.
In April the US government announced a $5m reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of the three main leaders of the Kinahan crime cartel.
At the time, the British National Crime Agency (NCA) described the cartel as “an Irish organised crime group responsible for importing multi-tonne quantities of drugs and firearms around the world for more than 20 years.”
An NCA spokesman said of the sanctions: “The Kinahan crime group, which has also been linked to more than a dozen gangland murders, have been effectively cut off from the global financial system.”
“Over the last two years, the National Crime Agency, in collaboration with international law enforcement partners and US government bodies, have collated material generated from significant operational activity which shows their involvement in serious and organised criminality.”
The material was submitted to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in the United States, who announced that the head of the crime group, Christopher Vincent Kinahan Snr, and his two sons, Daniel Joseph Kinahan and Christopher Vincent Kinahan Jnr, along with a number of their associates and businesses, will be subject to the sanctions.
