Suspected crime boss Daniel Kinahan is being extradited from the United Arab Emirates to Ireland, with an Irish government jet departing Dubai on Sunday carrying the 49-year-old to Dublin, where he will be charged with directing a criminal organisation. He will appear before the non-jury Special Criminal Court on Sunday evening as part of a large-scale security operation involving armed gardaí, the Irish Defence Forces and the Irish Prison Service, which has bought a bulletproof, bombproof van for high-risk prisoner transport.

Kinahan was arrested in the UAE in April and fought his extradition, which followed a warrant issued by Irish courts that month, before losing his appeal. He is expected to be held on remand in the upgraded maximum-security Portlaoise Prison, and had previously survived a gangland assassination attempt at a Dublin hotel in 2016 amid a feud linked to 18 deaths. The Kinahan cartel, sanctioned by the US in 2022, has been described by American authorities as one of the world's most dangerous crime groups, allegedly earning over €1bn globally, with a $5m US reward still on offer for information on its three most senior members.