Inside drug boss Daniel Kinahan’s desperate multi-million PR campaign – from hip-hop track to bogus ‘documentary’
MOB boss Daniel Kinahan launched a multi-million euro PR campaign to reinvent himself as a boxing promoter in 2020.
The latest episode of Irish Sun’s chart-topping podcast tells how deluded Daniel believed he could use his dirty drugs money to become a top figure in the world of pro boxing.
The hated Dublin gangster, 45, fancied himself as a ‘super agent’ to the stars and was desperate to reinvent himself as a major player in the sport while ditching his organised crime past.
Using his now-defunct MTK management stable, Kinahan urged major names in the sport to help promote his image — including heavyweight champ Tyson Fury.
But his master plan eventually came crashing down in April 2022 when US authorities slapped a $5million bounty on his head, as well as dad Christy and brother Christopher Jnr.
As part of his PR effort, a hip-hop track by rapper J Spades bizarrely claimed that Gardai, the Government and the media set up the attack at Dublin’s Regency Hotel in February 2016.
Drug kingpin Kinahan, who is currently hiding out in Dubai, was the target of the notorious attack at a boxing weigh-in but narrowly escaped with his life after fleeing out a back entrance.
His close associate David Byrne was blasted to death while senior cartel figure Sean McGovern was injured in the assault by thugs dressed as armed cops.
J Spades’ tune includes lyrics saying the incident was “worth a movie that could have won an Oscar”. It also claims “everything was a set up,” and “20-minute calls to the police, no pick up.”
It alleges: “Guess the Government wanted somebody dead, hoping the bullets hit somebody’s head.”
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The song also hits out at the media for “propaganda”.
Speaking to our podcast, J Spades defended Kinahan and questioned why cops weren’t at the Regency when the attack occurred.
The rapper told host Damien Lane: “Let’s just say, for instance, this wasn’t Daniel Kinahan.
“Because I feel like whatever rap sheet they tried to attach to them, whatever stigma they try attach to him, if that was a stigma and that stigma was really what they say it is, then why wasn’t there police at that weigh-in to begin with?
“Anyone that’s following the story would have known that a couple of months before that there was a few things happening. And so this was a build up. They knew something like this was going to go down.”
He added: “All of that going on and something like that happens in broad daylight, these people walk in, in front of people, do the dirty and everyone goes away.”
Not content with publicising himself in song, Kinahan then attempted to whitewash his image with an expensive ‘documentary’ entitled The Regency: Discover The Truth.
'NAIVE'
No expense was spared on the 15-minute project, with over 100 actors were hired for the shoot.
Producers booked a hunky actor to play Daniel — as well as booking an entire hotel in the UK to film the propaganda effort.
The Sunday Times’ Crime Correspondent John Mooney explained: “Their forays into marketing, PR, propaganda, whatever you want to call it, it came at a time where they were transitioning into legitimate industry and possibly saw such activity as something that could pull it off.
“But it was a rather naive, clumsy and misguided effort that really to me, it just demonstrated that they’re really not that intelligent. They might have street cunning, but they’re not that intelligent.
“And it would also suggests to me that they have wealth beyond most people’s imaginations. My understanding of the film they made, which was kind of awful to watch, that it would have cost like hundreds of thousands. And this was spent on a production with actors and everything else.
“For for what? Like, I mean, you know, it really didn’t, no one was going to watch that and come to the conclusion that somehow Daniel Kinahan was not involved in crime.”
Daniel was also believed to behind a book that purported to tell the “truth” behind the Regency, which appeared online having been authored by “anonymous”.
Although Kinahan’s efforts were unsuccessful in Ireland, some of the biggest names in boxing had no problem in working alongside the violent thug.
The boss of Top Rank explained: “Look, I’m not naive.
“What did or didn’t happen prior to his involvement in boxing is not of a major concern to me.
“I really must say that not only is he intelligent, which everybody had told me before, but he is dead honest and forthright and is a no-nonsense guy. And every promise that he’s made to us, he’s more than fulfilled.”
'HONOURABLE MAN'
Veteran promoter Arum — a boxing Hall of Famer — added: “Those are allegations, and I don’t know anything about that.
“And his dealings with us have been solely about Tyson Fury and the sport of boxing. And if anybody asked me, I would say without any question that I find him to be an honourable man.”
At the height of Kinahan’s PR campaign, heavyweight champ Tyson Fury gave his friend and mentor a social media shout-out.
The Gypsy King stunned the world of professional boxing and made international headlines by name-dropping the cartel chief after telling fans a fight with Anthony Joshua had been agreed, although it never did take place.
Fury said in 2020: “Just after getting off the phone with Daniel Kinahan. He just informed me that the biggest fight in British boxing history has just been agreed.
“A big shout out to Dan, he got this done, literal over the line. The two-fight deal — Tyson Fury versus Anthony Joshua — next year.
“So a big thank you Dan for getting this deal over the line.” The clip soon earned widespread condemnation when it was raised in the Dail the following day.
Then Labour leader Alan Kelly said: “There’s an individual from our country who, according to the High Court, is a very senior figure in organised crime on a global scale. According to the Criminal Assets Bureau, he has controlled and managed the operations of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group for some time.
“He’s now re-branding himself in the Middle East as a boxing promoter and one of the most famous individuals involved in that has described him as ‘a smart, able and honest man’.”
Arum cut ties with Kinahan after he was sanctioned by the US Government.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said in response: “I don’t want to say too much about it, but I have to say I was rather taken aback to see Tyson Fury and his video the other day and just dropping in that name that you mentioned as if this was not somebody who has a quite a checkered history in this State and elsewhere.
“And what I can’t comment on any particular Garda operation, I can certainly assure you that there has been contact between the Department of Foreign Affairs and the authorities in the United Arab Emirates about that matter.”
Despite the $5m bounty placed on the heads of the Kinahans, it emerged at the weekend that the scumbags are being sheltered by senior officials in Dubai.
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Although the exact location of Christy, Daniel and Christopher Jr is unclear, they are thought to be regular visitors to Dubai. And Dan is also said to have resumed his involvement in pro boxing, using proxies in an attempt to remain under the radar from authorities.
The Kinahans is available on and .
