Mafia-like ring with global assets funded by drugs, guns and human trafficking - The Irish Times - Thu, May 27, 2010

Mafia-like ring with global assets funded by drugs, guns and human trafficking - The Irish Times - Thu, May 27, 2010: "PROPERTY assets linked to the Christy Kinahan-led international drugs cartel in Brazil alone are worth an estimated €500 million.
That sum is more than treble the value of all cash and assets seized by the Criminals Assets Bureau in Ireland since the bureau’s inception almost 15 years ago. The details that continued to emerge in Spain yesterday reveal that Kinahan is at the head of a mafia-style operation with assets worldwide funded by drug trafficking, money laundering, gun running and even human trafficking.
The property portfolio in Brazil is comprised of six leisure complexes and a string of residential properties, with a combined value of €500 million, Spanish authorities say.
In Spain some 60 properties – including villas, apartments and business premises – have already been frozen in the first part of an assets confiscation case there. The properties in Spain are valued at about €150 million by the authorities.
The Spanish properties are located along the Costa in Benalmadena, Fuengirola, Mijas, Marbella, Nueva Andalusia and Estepona. Kinahan lives in a €6 million villa, and also regularly stays in an apartment valued at €800,000 in a gated complex near Marbella.
There are other properties in Ireland, England, Dubai, South Africa and Belgium."