John Mooney
speaker
62 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Mar 2025
last heard Mar 2025
John Mooney’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Christopher Kinahan is probably the most successful and entrepreneurial criminal that Ireland has ever produced. He is currently a billionaire. He controls much of the cocaine trade in Europe. It could be argued that he is one of the most prolific criminals that Europe has ever produced.
In the 1980s, Ireland witnessed the arrival of drugs, and that came in the form of heroin, which caused havoc to inner-city communities. Kennehan was someone who was involved in this business, but wasn't at the pinnacle or the apex of it. At the time, he was employed as a taxi driver, but he appeared to be wholesaling heroin. He wasn't a street dealer.
He was supplying drugs to people who did operate at street level.
Not a lot of people would have known his name unlike other serious criminals from that time who had reputations that preceded them and often featured in newspapers and in the tabloids and in, you know, local folklore in certain parts of the city. They liked the notoriety of being photographed and filmed and and having their names and reputations covered in the tabloid press in particular.
But Kinahan was very different. He kind of kept himself to himself. He shunned publicity. No one really knew a lot about him.
When I've spoken to people who met him at that time, the one thing that always struck them about this guy was he seemed very together, very well-spoken man, well-educated and could pass himself off as a businessman or someone maybe who, you know, if he had pursued a different type of career, could have got involved in stockbroking or banking or something like that.
So he was a mystery in many ways.
I have interviewed lots of people that have spent time with the Kenhans. People that, for example, have been involved in laundering money for the cartel. I've interviewed paramilitaries that have crossed paths with the Kenhans. I've interviewed... certain people that had been involved in feuding with the Kinan cartel.
When you're examining an organization like this, you really have to be very careful with them because they have huge capabilities, they have infinite finances, and they also have demonstrated time and time again the ability to kill people that get in their way.
I have to say, in saying that, I don't think they'd ever be silly enough to do something to a journalist, but we've had journalists killed in Ireland. So you have to be mindful and very careful and professional when you go about investigating this particular organization.
Where he has... made threats without making threats. And that's something that I find it almost very difficult to explain. In one voicemail that was played to me, he was trying to intimidate someone and he had sent them a series of messages on WhatsApp. And some of them he would end by saying, God bless. But there was one particular message that struck me as quite intimidating.
And in that message, he said, I'm not looking for a fight with you. I thought you didn't want to have an argument with me. So you see yourself as a mouse. Then that's up to you. Keep your energy levels up. Goodbye. So that's classic Kinahan. He kind of says everything, but he says nothing at all. You can't really make a complaint about something like that.
Not that you would make a complaint against Christy Kinahan. But what has he said?
Basically, the Irish government decided to lobby the United States and build a coalition of countries that had an issue with the cartel and had an interest in bringing its leadership to justice. What makes him truly unique is his relationship with hostile states like Iran, terrorist organizations like Hezbollah, and virtually every powerful criminal organization across the world.
So he's a very unique individual. He's highly intelligent. He's very smart, very savvy, very cosmopolitan. He is not your average criminal.
Service was good and the staff were pleasant and helpful. The menu caters for non-vegan, dairy and sugar. I had an acai bowl followed by eggs with almond bread and green salad. My meal was well presented and tasty. I give this establishment five stars.
We certainly were able to map out his activities, his contacts, some of his political views, but also what would appear to be very anodyne information, but which was actually quite revealing. And he kind of gave the game away on lots of different things.
And that family lived in a flat complex in Dublin's inner city. But the marriage didn't last long because of his involvement in crime. He then went on to have a number of relationships with different women. And he fathered at least eight children that I know of. Some of these people have no involvement in crime or anything like that.
They lead quite private lives and they've not come to any attention of anyone.
And the prison he was sent to is called Port Leash. So Port Leash is a prison that was used to house serious criminals, but also paramilitaries from the IRA and the Irish National Liberation Army.
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