This article is the result of a collaboration with The Sunday Times. You can find their corresponding piece here.

A key leader of the Kinahan cartel who is wanted by authorities around the world and has been living in hiding in Dubai for a decade has just had his Emirates residence permit renewed.

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A Bellingcat and The Sunday Times review of public immigration records from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has revealed that Christopher Kinahan Jr, the son of cartel founder Christy Kinahan, was issued with a new visa less than two weeks ago. 

This is despite his status as a sanctioned individual who is the subject of a $5 million reward from the US government for information leading to his arrest. 

Our analysis has also exposed the residence statuses of the crime gang’s other sanctioned leaders who remain at large in Dubai. The records include previously unknown companies where the cartel members are purportedly employed.

It comes after Christopher Jr’s older brother Daniel Kinahan lost his final appeal in Dubai last week to prevent being extradited back to Ireland. He is the second key figure of the crime group to be apprehended in the Emirates following his high-profile arrest in April.

The Kinahan Organised Crime Group is a $1.5 billion transnational network involved in drug trafficking, money laundering and arms smuggling. Investigators have connected it to Iran’s intelligence services and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah.

The cartel’s senior leadership – Christy Kinahan, 69, and his sons Daniel, 49, and Christopher Jr, 45, their cousin Ian Dixon, 36, along with associates Sean McGovern, 40, Bernard Clancy, 48, and Johnny Morrissey, 66 – was sanctioned by the US government in 2022.

The UAE reportedly banned the Kinahans from doing business in the wake of the sanctions and the Emiratis also claim to have frozen €200 million in Kinahan assets. However, our findings suggest the cartel is still doing business in the Emirates and its leadership has repeatedly engaged with immigration authorities in the years following the sanctions.

The visa records were accessed through publicly available UAE government websites. We entered data contained in the US government’s sanctions notice, including the gang members’ ID or passport number, birth date and nationality, to view their immigration files.

Action in Dubai

Six of the seven key cartel figures who were sanctioned by the US in 2022 lived in Dubai. Cartel lieutenant Sean McGovern was extradited to Ireland in 2025 and jailed in June.

Daniel Kinahan awaits extradition from Dubai.

Online Immigration Records

Our open source review of immigration records shows two members have active residence permits. The other two have expired permits.

Chris Kinahan Jr

Active Permit

Christopher Kinahan Jr’s residence permit was renewed on July 20 for a two-year period. His previous visa had expired in December 2024. The new residence card lists his employment as “sales officer” at a company named Island Star Tourism.

Bernard Clancy

Active Permit

Bernard Clancy’s most recent two-year residence permit was renewed in January. Like Christopher Jr, Clancy’s stated profession is “sales officer”, but for a company named Al Matn Goods Wholesalers LLC.

Christy Kinahan

Expired Permit

Ian Dixon

Expired Permit

Records for Christy Kinahan and Ian Dixon show the residence permits associated with their available passport numbers have expired.

Christy Kinahan

Expired Permit

On his most recent visa, which expired on April 1, Christy Kinahan’s listed employer is OSA Management Consultancies DWC LLC. This firm is based at the same Dubai address as CV Aviation Consulting Services DWC LLC, another company reportedly linked to the cartel.

Ian Dixon

Expired Permit

Dixon’s employer listed on his most recent visa was Hoopoe Sports LLC, one of the firms sanctioned by the US for being “owned or controlled” by Dixon.

Christy Kinahan

The UAE imposes a fine for each day a person stays in the country after their visa expires. A Dubai government portal shows Christy Kinahan owes the equivalent of more than USD $1,000 for an 81 day overstay.

Ian Dixon

Dixon, whose residency expired in 2024, owes more than USD $11,000 for an 852-day overstay.

Sanctioned

Christy Kinahan

Dubai

Expired Permit

• 81 days overstay
• Fine: ~$1,000

Chris Kinahan Jr

Dubai

Active Permit

• Renewed: Jul 2026
• Island Star Tourism

Bernard Clancy

Dubai

Active Permit

• Renewed: Jan 2026
• Al Matn Goods Wholesalers LLC

Ian Dixon

Dubai

Expired Permit

• 852 days overstay
• Fine: ~$11,000

Daniel Kinahan

Dubai

Sean McGovern

Dubai > IRE

Johnny Morrissey

Spain

Chris Kinahan Jr

Dubai

Active Permit

Bernard Clancy

Dubai

Active Permit

Christy Kinahan

Dubai

Expired Permit

Ian Dixon

Dubai

Expired Permit

Christy Kinahan

Dubai

Expired Permit

Ian Dixon

Dubai

Expired Permit

*Bellingcat searched the Dubai government’s identity and foreign affairs portal by inputting data about the cartel’s leadership that was contained in the US government’s sanctions notice. Searching the gang members’ ID or passport number, birth date and nationality returned a “Unified Number”, a unique identifier assigned to every UAE visa holder. This number, when entered with the other identity information on a UAE federal government portal, returned the visa holder’s current status, history and file number.

Roy McComb, a former deputy director of the UK’s National Crime Agency, told The Sunday Times it was preposterous to suggest that the UAE did not know the visa status of the cartel members in Dubai.

“How is Christy Kinahan in the UAE unlawfully and the authorities there are unwilling to take appropriate action? The Kinahans are not an unknown entity, they are at the very apex of organised crime,” he said. “For the UAE not to know their residency status beggars belief.”

David Haigh, a British solicitor who was imprisoned on fraud charges in Dubai and now assists victims of abuse in the region, said it was clear the cartel must be paying off officials. “If someone is living openly there for a long period of time with that level of heat, that to me shows there’s been corruption involved,” he said. “If they were using false passports to enter Dubai, that’s a serious federal offence.”

The passport details publicly listed in the US sanctions provide an unprecedented glimpse into the timeline of the cartel leadership’s visa history, giving an overview of their initial entry and exit to the Emirates.

The records show that four of the six key gang members had entered the UAE long before the 2016 attempt on Daniel Kinahan’s life in Dublin and the ensuing deadly feud that led to the cartel’s full relocation to the UAE.

Related articles by Bellingcat

Europe

Poster Boy: Sanctioned Kinahan Cartel Lieutenant Found Playing Padel in Dubai

A passport number for Christopher Kinahan Jr is linked to short-term UAE visas issued as early as September 2013. A passport number listed for Daniel Kinahan, searched in combination with an alternative sanctions-listed date of birth that is not his real one, returned seven short-term UAE visas between 2013 and 2015. It is not known what name this passport was under, but Daniel Kinahan has reportedly held illegitimate passports in the past.

A short-term visa for details associated with Ian Dixon first appeared in 2015. Authorities allege that Dixon acted as a trusted lieutenant to Daniel Kinahan by helping move bulk cash across Europe, arranging payments and keeping tabs on money owed by a narco-trafficker. In June, we revealed that Dixon was the poster boy for a padel club in Dubai, where he has been captured playing the racquet sport on webcams. 

The earliest visas found for details associated with Sean McGovern and Bernard Clancy were from March and April 2016 respectively, the months after the 2016 attack in Dublin.

All key members of the group, with the exception of crime boss Christy Kinahan, gained residency in the UAE using Irish passports. The cartel founder’s British passport number is linked to his immigration file; both to his latest residence permit and four previous temporary visas. Records show the first visa associated with this passport was issued in February 2007 – the earliest known instance of Christy Kinahan entering the UAE. Another was issued in November 2009, and then two more in 2017. 

However, details for an Irish passport under one of Christy Kinahan’s aliases (“Christopher O’Brien”) return 31 separate records on the UAE’s visa inquiry portal between 2014 and 2017. Bellingcat confirmed this passport number was associated with the name Christopher O’Brien after discovering both in corporate documents for a now-defunct Hong Kong firm that was incorporated in February 2014. This suggests Kinahan may have been using a false passport to travel to and from the UAE in addition to traveling under his authentic document. A man was jailed in 2023 after admitting he supplied “fraudulently obtained genuine passports” to criminals, including Kinahan.

One short-term UAE visa issued for “Christopher O’Brien” ended on August 19, 2015. Posts on LinkedIn three days later showed Christy Kinahan – wearing black-framed glasses and named in the posts as “Christopher O’Brien” – surrounded by Iranian and Turkish businessmen in a high-rise company office in Ankara. These images, discovered by Bellingcat in posts under the name of the managing director of a now-defunct Turkish investment company, have since been deleted.

According to the Dubai government, employment-based residence visas are valid for two years and must be obtained by a company on its employee’s behalf. The employer is required to apply for a work permit through the UAE’s Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratization. The employee must pass a fitness test before their employer can apply for the residence permit.

The company names on Clancy and Kinahan Jr’s residence permits, Al Matn Goods Wholesalers and Island Star Tourism respectively, match existing firms in Dubai. However, Bellingcat was unable to confirm whether these entities are the same as the ones listed on the residence permits. It is also not known why Clancy’s residence permit only includes his first and middle names (“Bernard Patrick”) while the other cartel members’ visas used their full names. 

The firm named on Christy Kinahan’s permit, OSA Management Consultancies, is listed as an aviation consultancy on a Dubai government registry. In addition to sharing an address with cartel-linked firm CV Aviation Consulting Services, UAE company data accessed on Horizons, a platform created by Washington DC-based nonprofit C4ADS that aggregates public records, shows that both firms also have the same business licence number and date of incorporation, suggesting OSA may be a newer name for the same entity.

The managing director of Island Star Tourism told Bellingcat on the phone that Christopher Kinahan Jr was working as “commission-based staff, not in-office staff”. He confirmed he recognised Christopher Kinahan Jr’s name but said he had never met him. Asked how the company name appeared on his visa, he said “I don’t know”. He said if the UAE had any problem with Christopher Kinahan Jr, it would “not give permission”.

Al Matn Goods Wholesalers and OSA Management Consultancies did not respond to questions from Bellingcat.

The UAE foreign ministry has been approached for comment.

Connor Plunkett, Peter Barth, Beau Donelly and John Mooney contributed to this article. Scroll-driven interactive by Connor Plunkett and Miguel Ramalho. 

Bellingcat is a non-profit and the ability to carry out our work is dependent on the kind support of individual donors. If you would like to support our work, you can do so here. You can also subscribe to our Patreon channel here. Subscribe to our Newsletter and follow us on Bluesky here, Instagram here, Reddit here and YouTube here.

The post Welcome to Dubai: Kinahan Cartel’s Visas Revealed appeared first on bellingcat.

This article is the result of a collaboration with The Sunday Times. You can find their corresponding piece here.

Every Friday evening, the brochure says, players can compete to win cash prizes in one of the world’s fastest-growing racquet sports. The padel club in Dubai’s west is the picture of modern wellness culture: climate-controlled courts, a private sauna and ice bath, and one-on-one coaching. The promotional image shows a bearded man in mid-swing, eyes locked on the ball. He wears matching activewear and a golden tan. The poster boy for padel is a talented player who once finished runner-up at an international tournament. He has also spent the past decade living in the shadows.

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Ian Thomas Dixon is a key figure in the Kinahan cartel, the Irish organised crime group that authorities say has evolved into a US$1.5 billion transnational network involved in drug trafficking, money laundering and arms smuggling. Investigators have connected the cartel to Iran’s intelligence services and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah. Its feuds with rival gangs have been linked to at least 18 murders across four countries.

Dixon, 36, along with the Kinahan Organised Crime Group’s senior leadership – Christy Kinahan, 69, and his sons Daniel, 49, and Christopher Jr, 45 – was sanctioned by the US government in 2022. Authorities allege the Irishman acted as a trusted lieutenant to Daniel Kinahan, who is said to manage the cartel’s vast drug trafficking operation by helping move bulk cash across Europe, arranging payments and keeping tabs on money owed by a narco-trafficker.

Bellingcat and The Sunday Times can today reveal how Dixon’s racquet sport hobby has left behind a digital trail that led to the most recent footage of him since those sanctions were imposed – the first time he has been pictured publicly in almost a decade. This investigation also uncovers the alias Dixon has used in Dubai and exposes the first open source links to an underworld associate who was recently extradited from the Gulf state and jailed in Scotland.

It comes as cartel leader Daniel Kinahan awaits extradition to Ireland after his arrest in Dubai on foot of a warrant issued by Irish authorities. The arrest, in April, followed an extensive policing and diplomatic effort from international law enforcement.

In March, investigations by Bellingcat and The Sunday Times exposed the first photographs of Daniel Kinahan and his father in years and also revealed that the cartel’s “friend”, former UFC fighter Mounir Lazzez, was connected to US sanctions against Iran.

The latest findings give an unprecedented glimpse into the recent activity of a key cartel associate who, until now, has largely flown under the radar.

Family Ties

When cartel founder Christy Kinahan moved to Spain after his release from an Irish prison in 2001, it wasn’t long before his new home became a hub for the gang. His sons, Daniel and Christopher Jr, soon followed him to the Costa del Sol – as did their younger cousin, Dublin native Ian Dixon.

From the late 2000s onward, Dixon worked for businesses linked to the crime family in the south of Spain. One of these was The Auld Dubliner, a pub in Estepona that reportedly served as a base of operations for the cartel. In 2010, the pub was raided and temporarily closed by authorities as part of Operation Shovel, a years-long multi-national police investigation into the cartel’s drugs and arms-trafficking activities.

Dixon would also work as a trainer at MGM Marbella, the boxing gym co-founded by Daniel Kinahan that would go on to represent some of the biggest pro boxers in the world. The company, which was renamed MTK Global, shut down after the US sanctions on the Kinahans were imposed in April 2022.

In 2016, Dixon was arrested by Spanish police investigating the murder of Irish criminal Gary Hutch. The previous year, Hutch had been gunned down while out for a morning jog in a gated community on the Costa del Sol.

Dixon was released without charge, and another Kinahan cartel associate was later sentenced to 22 years for his role in the murder. The killing sparked a feud between the Kinahans and the rival Irish Hutch gang  that resulted in at least 18 deaths. 

Dixon and other key Kinahan members fled to Dubai in the wake of the deadly feud.

Ian Dixon has no known convictions. But his alleged role in the Kinahan Organised Crime Group was laid bare when the US sanctioned him. Authorities said Dixon managed finances and moved bulk currency for Daniel Kinahan and also kept tabs on the debt owed by a narco-trafficker. 

The sanctions notice also said Dixon controlled Hoopoe Sports LLC, a Dubai firm that listed a number of pro boxers among its clients and reportedly received more than $4 million for bouts involving former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. Boxing promoter Bob Arum told Yahoo Sports the money was for consulting fees owed to Daniel Kinahan.

Dixon lived in an exclusive gated community in Dubai, according to the 2022 sanctions notice. Online listings show that properties like his Spanish-inspired villa are worth up to $2.7 million.

Passion for Padel

Padel is an increasingly popular racquet sport from Mexico best described as a combination of tennis and squash. According to the sport’s governing body, it has more than 17.5 million weekly players across 150 countries and the UAE, where Dixon lives, has the second-highest number of padel courts in Asia. It was on these courts in late 2024 that Dixon played in the master final of the Asia Pacific Padel Tour (APPT).

APPT rankings show Dixon registered for the tournament under the name “Ian Thomas”. Like his cartel leader relative Christy Kinahan, who used his first and middle names as an alias on his Google review profile, Dixon had dropped his surname.

Finding a Fugitive – How we Located Dixon

Bellingcat found the padel club promotion showing Ian Dixon after running images of the cartel associate through a publicly available facial recognition search engine. Among the results was a link to a graphic designer’s online portfolio, which included the advertisement for the padel competition. The original photo had been posted on the sports club’s Instagram page in late 2023, with the caption: “Elevating fun, one swing at a time!” Dixon was not named.

We searched for additional open source evidence and located online profiles for a 36-year-old Irish padel player named “Ian Thomas” who had taken part in a number of matches in Dubai in recent years. One profile shows he played 16 ranked matches between September 2024 and April 2026 – the most recent being the week after Daniel Kinahan’s arrest. But the accounts did not include profile pictures.

Bellingcat searched for footage showing the padel events and venues listed on the profiles. It returned multiple social media posts and live-streams clearly showing Ian Dixon at the same events where “Ian Thomas” was registered as playing. Dixon can also be heard speaking with a Dublin accent and at one point is seen with a close relative of Daniel Kinahan.

Dixon and his doubles partner played four games over the December 13-15 weekend, eventually placing second after losing in the final. The Irish cartel associate is captured on film after the match receiving a silver medal and commemorative racquet.

The Asia Pacific Padel Tour was held a month after senior Kinahan cartel figure Sean McGovern was arrested in Dubai on foot of an Interpol red notice. McGovern was extradited to Ireland last year and earlier this month jailed for 24 years for directing the activities of a criminal organisation in relation to murder and attempted murder. 

The tournament was live-streamed to YouTube via webcams set up on two courts. Dixon was captured throughout the three-day event, both playing on the court and mingling with others in the background. The hour-long male amateur final, which Dixon lost, is viewable in its entirety.

Dixon also posed for photos during the tournament, but it appears he did have some reticence about appearing on social media. In two images from a different padel event hosted at the same venue a few months later, Dixon’s face had been covered. However, a third photo was not edited, confirming that it was Ian Dixon.

Kingpin in the Crowd

Among the people Dixon was seen with at padel events in Dubai was Stephen Jamieson, a Scottish criminal who was recently jailed for his role in a multimillion-dollar drug trafficking operation.

Dixon greeted Jamieson with a fist pump during the Dubai APPT tournament in December 2024 on the day the Irishman played in the amateur final.

Dixon was also pictured with Jamieson at a family day padel event just weeks before the Scottish criminal’s arrest. (Bellingcat is not publishing details of that event to protect the identity of family members.)

Jamieson, who has multiple convictions, was extradited from Dubai last year and is serving a six-year prison sentence in Scotland on organised crime and drug charges. The case against him was built around intercepted messages he had sent via the defunct encrypted communication network EncroChat – a network the Kinahans have also used – to direct drug shipments.

The Sunday Times reports today on the Kinahan cartel’s deeply entrenched links to organised crime in the UK, where it is known to control much of the illicit drug market. It said the footage showing that Dixon and Jamieson know each other could indicate an underworld connection, since cartel cadres do not associate with rival operations.

Three of the seven alleged key Kinahan cartel figures have been arrested since the US sanctions were imposed. Johnny Morrissey, arrested in Spain in 2022, was later bailed and subject to a travel ban. Sean McGovern was jailed earlier this month and Daniel Kinahan awaits extradition to Ireland after his recent arrest in Dubai. Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly, of Ireland’s police force, recently said the investigation into the Kinahan cartel was ongoing and that authorities were continuing to focus on the other members of the gang.

Ian Dixon did not respond to questions from Bellingcat.

Connor Plunkett, Peter Barth, Beau Donelly and John Mooney contributed to this article. 

Bellingcat is a non-profit and the ability to carry out our work is dependent on the kind support of individual donors. If you would like to support our work, you can do so here. You can also subscribe to our Patreon channel here. Subscribe to our Newsletter and follow us on Bluesky here, Instagram here, Reddit here and YouTube here.

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The post Poster Boy: Sanctioned Kinahan Cartel Lieutenant Found Playing Padel in Dubai appeared first on bellingcat.

Almost 800 Hungarian government email addresses and associated passwords are circulating online, revealing basic vulnerabilities in the security protocols of ministries involved in classified and sensitive work.

A Bellingcat analysis of breach data shows that 12 out of the government’s 13 ministries have been affected, which in some cases have exposed the confidential information of military personnel and civil servants posted abroad. 

Among those affected were a senior military officer responsible for information security, a counter terrorism coordinator in the foreign affairs department, and an employee whose role was to identify hybrid threats against the country.

The revelations come as Hungarians head to the polls this Sunday to decide if Viktor Orbán, leader of the right-wing populist party Fidesz and the country’s longest-serving prime minister, will be elected to a fifth consecutive term.

This is not the first time that deficiencies in the Hungarian government’s IT security have been revealed. In 2022, ahead of Hungary’s last election, Direkt36 reported that Russia’s intelligence services had gained access to the computer network of the Hungarian foreign ministry, including its internal communications channels.

It said Russian cyber attacks against the Hungarian government had been occurring for at least a decade and extended to the foreign ministry’s encrypted network for transmitting classified data and confidential diplomatic documents.

At the time, the foreign ministry denied it had been hacked. But in 2024, news outlet 444 published a letter that had been sent from Hungary’s National Security Service to the foreign ministry six months before the cyberattack was first reported. The letter linked the attacks to Russia and described more than 4,000 workstations and 930 servers as “unreliable”.

As part of this new analysis, Bellingcat identified a total of 795 unique email and password combinations among thousands of search results for Hungarian government domains in breach databases. Key departments that handle the country’s governance, defence, foreign affairs and finances were the worst affected.

The analysis does not include central government agencies that operate under the government’s official ministries and use separate domains, such as the tax and customs administration or the police – meaning breaches affecting government employees could be even more widespread.

The findings are not evidence of high-tech infiltration of Hungarian government systems. Instead, our analysis indicates that the breaches are more likely the result of poor digital hygiene. In many cases, staff used simple passwords along with their government email addresses for what appear to be non-work-related matters, such as signing up to dating, music, sport and food websites.

Some government workers used easy-to-guess passwords such as variations of the word “Password” or the number sequence “1234567”. One employee whose credentials were exposed in the 2012 LinkedIn hack used the password “linkedinlinkedin”. Another, in the defence ministry, used their surname. One leaked password from an employee in the foreign affairs ministry was “embassy13hungary”. 

Multiple breaches also contained phone numbers, addresses, dates of birth, usernames and IP addresses – data that, when exposed, could pose security risks.  

Additionally, a search of breach databases showed instances where computers have been infected with malware designed to steal login credentials. These records show that 97 machines across Hungarian government departments had been compromised, with stealer logs from as recently as last month found in the data.

Bellingcat contacted the Hungarian government’s spokesperson and the Prime Minister’s office, but did not receive a response.

The Weakest Link: Searching Breach Data

Breach databases are large collections of credentials harvested from previous cyber incidents. These databases can be searched by domain to identify email addresses belonging to a specific organisation, company or government. 

Bellingcat used Darkside, a paid service by District 4 Labs, to search the main email domains assigned to each of the Hungarian government’s 13 ministries. 

In total, 795 breaches containing government emails and associated passwords were identified. But most – 641 breaches – were linked to just four central institutions. 

In the examples detailed below, staff have been anonymised. However, Bellingcat has confirmed these accounts are genuine by cross-checking the employees named in the breaches against media reports and online profiles, such as LinkedIn.  

Ministry of Interior – this “super-ministry” oversees everything from health and education to the police, immigration, disaster management and local government 

Bellingcat identified 170 sets of emails and passwords linked to the domain used by the ministry in charge of domestic affairs. Passwords used by staff in this department included “Arsenal” and “Paprika”. Some used passwords that contained only three or four letters. We traced these accounts to professional profiles and government web pages listing both junior and senior staff.

One senior official in the prison service used the password “adolf”. After it appeared in breach databases the password was changed twice – first to a five-digit number and then to what appeared to be the name for a pet dog. The passwords were subsequently breached again. Bellingcat identified this employee through several instances of their name and email address being listed on public-facing documentation, including a press release celebrating an award for outstanding professional work.  

Ministry of Defence – responsible for national defence policy and directing the country’s defence forces

The credentials of staff working for the Ministry of Defence were found in 120 compromised records. This includes a 2023 breach of NATO’s eLearning services which resulted in 42 records containing emails, passwords and phone numbers becoming public.

The breaches peaked in 2021 but continued up to 2026. Included in the data were stealer logs, indicating that machines within the department may have been infected. 

Military personnel from junior ranks to command positions were identified. A Brigadier General used a common six letter nickname, based on his own, to sign up to a film festival. A Colonel specialising in “information security” took inspiration from an English football manager for his password: “FrankLampard”. A district director used the password “123456aA”, while a high-ranking member of Hungary’s delegation to NATO used a password that translates in English to “cute”. 

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade – responsible for international relations, Hungarian embassies and consulates operate under the direction of the department

The credentials of current and former foreign affairs personnel have been exposed in dozens of data breaches from 2011 to February 2026. In total, there were 107 email and password combinations linked to this government ministry. 

Among the staff affected was a deputy head of mission, consuls, diplomats and communications personnel posted in Europe, the Americas and the Middle East. These include a counter terrorism coordinator, an EU spokesperson, and an individual whose role was to identify hybrid threats to Hungary.

Although the breaches peaked in 2020, with emails being found in 42 separate breaches indexed by Darkside, MFA emails have been circulated, often with passwords, in 36 separate breaches since the beginning of 2024. The most recent breaches were in 2026.  

Simple passwords appear to have left Hungary’s foreign affairs ministry vulnerable. In some cases, employees used a password that consisted of their own name and a two digit number. Others appeared to take inspiration from pop culture: “porsche911”, “frogger” and “Batman2013” are examples of real passwords used by staff.

Ministry of National Economy – oversees economic policy and financial strategy, including budget preparation and reducing national debt

Bellingcat’s analysis shows that staff in the Ministry for National Economy suffered 99 breaches. The Ministry of Finance, which was merged into this department in 2025, had suffered 145 breaches.

Among the breached data were the credentials of a deputy state secretary, who used the password “snoopy”. Other staff members used their date of birth or the word “Jelszo” – the Hungarian word for password.

A senior advisor who currently works in the ministry had their credentials breached four times using four different passwords, including “Kurvaanyad1” (roughly translated to “your mother is a wh**e”).

Cybersecurity Not Taken Seriously

Szabolcs Dull, a political analyst and the former editor-in-chief of the independent Hungarian news websites Index and Telex, said the government had failed to prioritise data security. 

“It’s clear from the data breaches that have come to light that government agencies did not take data security seriously,” he said. 

“This suspicion arose even when Russian hackers breached the foreign ministry’s IT system. That is why I believe Hungarian politicians and the public will interpret this new information as a continuation and confirmation of the Russian hacking story.”

Dull added that he was not aware of any investigation having been launched following the 2022 revelations of the Russian hack.

Kata Kincső Bárdos, a cybersecurity expert in Hungary, said it was difficult to understand why stricter controls would not be consistently enforced in government environments handling sensitive data.

She said governments should not only apply baseline rules for passwords – such as that staff use long, unique passwords and multi-factor authentication (MFA) – but also continuously monitor for compromised credentials and suspicious access patterns.

“Without MFA, systems become significantly more vulnerable to common attack methods such as phishing and credential stuffing,” she said. “A single compromised password can provide immediate access to internal systems.” 

Bárdos added that unauthorised access to government systems should automatically trigger incident response procedures, investigation and containment measures.

“It is also important to note that targeting lower-level employees is a well-documented and common tactic,” she said. “Attackers frequently gain initial access through phishing or weak credentials and then move laterally within systems.”

Bellingcat’s Ross Higgins and investigative journalist Eva Vajda contributed to this article.

Bellingcat is a non-profit and the ability to carry out our work is dependent on the kind support of individual donors. If you would like to support our work, you can do so here. You can also subscribe to our Patreon channel here. Subscribe to our Newsletter and follow us on Bluesky here, Instagram here, Reddit here and YouTube here.

The post ‘Snoopy’, ‘Adolf’ and ‘Password’: The Hungarian Government Passwords Exposed Online appeared first on bellingcat.

This article is the result of a collaboration with Josimar. You can find Josimar’s corresponding piece here.

A European academic used a false name to represent an opaque Asian-facing bookmaker that is sponsoring Croatia’s national football team in the run up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Croatia’s national governing body of football, the Croatian Football Federation (HNS), struck the deal to make gambling website Dragon Z6 the team’s “exclusive betting partner” across Asia in May 2024.

Promotional footage of the ceremony to ink the two-year agreement was filmed in Zagreb, with Croatian national team players Marco Pašalić, Lovro Majer and Josip Juranović in attendance.

A video posted to Dragon Z6’s website shows HNS International’s chief executive Dennis Lukančić and the federation’s head of marketing Ante Cicvarić signing the contract with the bookmaker’s representative.

“We hold Dragon Z6.com in high regard,” Cicvarić said in the clip. “A brand with a 25 year legacy and a stellar reputation for providing an exceptional gaming experience. Their motto, ‘Life is a gamble’, resonates deeply with us.”

Dragon Z6’s representative, who is named on screen and in a placard as “Alexander Smith”, described the deal as a “momentous partnership”. 

He said: “The Dragon Z6.com family proudly welcomes the Croatian national football team. We embark on an exciting journey to realise our shared ambitions.”

But the man who appears in the footage on behalf of Dragon Z6 is not Alexander Smith. He is Branko Balon, a senior lecturer in computer science at Algebra Bernays University in Zagreb. 

The Croatian national was identified using facial recognition search engine PimEyes, with images from his Facebook, university profile and media reports confirming the match.

In addition to his university position, Balon is the president of non-profit group the Croatian-Chinese Friendship Society for Cultural, Scientific and Economic Cooperation (CCFS).

He appears to have visited China on several occasions, including last July when he took part in a visiting scholar programme with the Nishan World Center of Confucian Studies in eastern China’s Shandong province, according to his Facebook posts.

Six months before the signing ceremony with HNS, Balon reportedly addressed a Zagreb sports and tourism symposium whose attendees included representatives from the Croatian Football Federation.

After initially confirming receipt of an email from Bellingcat, Branko Balon did not respond to questions. Dragon Z6 did not respond to multiple emails.

Dennis Lukančić said the Croatia Football Federation respected the rules and regulations of the sport’s governing bodies as well as Croatian law, but did not answer specific questions about how it became involved with Dragon Z6 or if it was previously aware of Balon’s real identity.

“Regarding the signing ceremony, we note that the Croatian Football Federation did not publish or officially communicate the identity of the Dragon Z6 representative present at the event,” he said. “As is customary with such ceremonies, the event itself was of a promotional nature and did not constitute the formal execution of contractual documentation.”

“The Croatian Football Federation is not in a position to comment on the internal decisions, communications, or presentation choices of Dragon Z6, including the use of names or identities in their own materials or appearances. Any questions regarding the identity or representation of Dragon Z6 at promotional events are best addressed to Dragon Z6 or their representatives. 

“In any of our proceedings we always negotiate in good faith and we respect all rights and obligations that arise from any agreement.”

Lukančić said the federation had carried out “standard compliance and due diligence procedures” before entering the deal and that the agreement was executed between the relevant legal entities, with Dragon Z6 “represented by their duly authorised signatories”. 

Asked which country Dragon Z6 was headquartered in, who its beneficial owner was, and for the name of the person who signed the contract on behalf of the gambling company, Lukančić said: “In our previous email we gave you already all answers and our position in this matter.”

We also asked if the Dragon Z6 deal includes sponsorship during the upcoming FIFA World Cup, but did not receive a response. England is Croatia’s first opponent, facing off against the Three Lions in Dallas on June 17.

The Many-Headed Dragon

Open source findings suggest that Dragon Z6 – sometimes referred to in Chinese as “Zunlong Kaisheng” – is just the latest iteration of an Asian-facing online gambling platform that has been sponsoring Western sports teams under different names for more than a decade. Dragon Z6 appears to be associated with the Hong Kong-linked gambling company KashBet, also known as KB88.

Gambling does not occur directly on the Z6.com domain. The site is essentially a gateway that redirects users to a fluctuating number of mirror websites with alphanumeric string domains. These Chinese-language sites host the gambling content, including live-streamed card games, and provide clues about Dragon Z6’s association with KashBet.

The image of Dutch former professional footballer Robin van Persie is featured prominently on Dragon Z6’s mirror sites. In the “About” section of these websites, the online casino says it signed van Persie as its brand ambassador in 2021. The same photograph of him is used interchangeably to promote both Dragon Z6 and the KashBet brand.

Van Persie’s agent, Kees Vos, said the footballer had not entered into a partnership with Kashbet, was not involved with Dragon Z6, and had not been aware that his image was being used on these websites.

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“We have taken notice of the abuse of the image of our client Robin van Persie by several Asian gambling platforms, and we will instruct our lawyers to take legal action against these parties,” Vos said.

Z6’s mirror sites also say Zunlong Kaisheng is the “official sponsor” of Bundesliga clubs Bayer Leverkusen and Augsburg, Brazilian side Fluminense, Italian club Roma, English league team Wigan Athletic and Dutch club Ajax. 

However, it was KashBet that signed sponsorship deals with these football teams in 2017 and 2019. No record of a sponsorship with FC Augsburg was found, but KB88 was promoted in pitchside advertising during one of the team’s 2019 home games.

In 2019, Australian football team Melbourne Victory dropped their AFC Champions League sponsor “Kaishi Entertainment” after concerns were raised about the company’s link to Kashbet. 

KashBet’s representative at the signing with Bayer Leverkusen was the same person who represented Kaishi Entertainment during the Melbourne Victory announcement in the same year.

A YouTube channel branded as “Zunlong Kaisheng” and featuring the Dragon Z6 logo hosts a 2024 video titled “Welcome to Dragon Casino”. It shows a tour of a facility where female croupiers are live-streamed operating table games. 

The video also features framed photographs purporting to show various ceremonies. These include the KashBet image of van Persie, as well as club teams AS Roma and AFC Ajax’s Asian betting partnerships with KB88 in 2017. Another photo claims to show former Real Madrid, Chelsea and Belgium footballer Eden Hazard becoming a Dragon Casino “brand ambassador” in 2020.

Bellingcat’s emails to representatives for Eden Hazard, who was recently announced as a “global ambassador” for online gambling platform Stake, were not returned.

The location of the facility is not stated but open source evidence shows it was filmed in the Philippines, where offshore gaming operators were banned in 2024. Reverse image searches confirm one section of the promotional video was shot in the five-star Peninsula Hotel in Makati City, Manila.

Offshore Corporate Labyrinth

Dutch club Ajax, who were sponsored by KB88 in 2017, said their deal involved Hong Kong firm KB88 Entertainment Culture Limited. A company based in the British Virgin Islands is also behind trade names linked to KB88, according to a 2023 investigation by Dutch outlet NRC. But the entities purportedly in control of the gambling platform do not stop there.

Dragon Z6’s site links to a 2012 statement posted by English Championship club, Queen’s Park Rangers (QPR), announcing a one year deal to make KashBet the club’s international betting partner. The press release, which was removed from QPR’s website earlier this year, said KashBet was “fully owned and operated by Keen Ocean Entertainment (IOM) Limited” and licensed and regulated by the Gambling Supervision Commission (GSC) on the Isle of Man.

Records from the Isle of Man company registry show a company named Goldenway Investments (UK) Limited was incorporated in 2010 and changed its name to Keen Ocean Entertainment (IOM) Limited a month later. The company’s two directors were all residents of the Isle of Man, adding Hong Kong resident Yong Tang as the third director in November of that year. A company acting as the secretary, Rivercroft Limited, is also named in documents.

An archive of the Isle of Man’s Gambling Supervision Commission’s 2012-13 annual report shows that Keen Ocean Entertainment obtained a full online gambling license. This enabled it to enter into the QPR deal as the regulated body behind Kashbet.

Filings on the Isle of Man register are low on detail. Balance sheets are not filed, and the only documented activity about the company was the occasional movement of Isle of Man-based directors. By November 2015, Yong Tang was the sole director of the company. 

In 2016, Keen Ocean Entertainment was informed by the Companies Registry that it did not have the authority to maintain its registered office at the address it had given as its premises. Yong Tang did not respond to this correspondence, according to the available documents, and the company was subsequently struck off the register.

Gaming Compliance International (GCI), a regulatory intelligence firm that monitors the global online gambling market, said Dragon Z6 and KashBet did not have a current gaming license in any credible jurisdiction.

Ismail Vali, GCI president and the founder and former chief executive of Yield Sec, which tracks gambling and streaming marketplaces, said Dragon Z6 “ruthlessly” targeted audiences in China – where gambling is illegal – but that did not mean the operators were based there.

“Generally, in the illegal gambling model, they use triangulation and separation,” he said. “It’s the most basic form of organised crime: operate your business in one place, incorporate your business in another, make your money from many places, bank your money in many places, and, finally, invest and spend it everywhere to create more crime. Separating the elements of the illegal activity creates problems for tracing, policing and enforcement.”

Vali said Western football associations that are struggling to operate on shrinking budgets could be lured into sponsorship deals with unregulated and illegal gambling companies, which were focused on building brand recognition through live-broadcast games.

“The illegal gambling companies aren’t focused upon making money from the direct audience of the clubs or from the football association’s footprint in Croatia,” he said. “What they are making money from is the audience the football matches are broadcast to globally. They want to communicate what the brand is and because it’s associated with international soccer people think it must be trustworthy.

“The whole point here is to recruit you through sports. That’s the cheapest way to get you interested because you want to place a bet on Croatia versus the Czech Republic in the World Cup qualifiers. Once they recruit a customer cheaply via sports events, they can then cross-sell or migrate them into casino and more products – where the profit margin is far higher.

“Unregulated gambling companies want a blended customer – they don’t just want you for sports betting, they want you for everything.”

Ross Higgins and Connor Plunkett contributed to this article.

Bellingcat is a non-profit and the ability to carry out our work is dependent on the kind support of individual donors. If you would like to support our work, you can do so here. You can also subscribe to our Patreon channel here. Subscribe to our Newsletter and follow us on Bluesky here, Instagram here, Reddit here and YouTube here.

The post Croatia’s Football Team Signed Deal With Gambling Sponsor Whose Rep Used Fake Name appeared first on bellingcat.

This article is the result of a collaboration with The Sunday Times. You can find their corresponding piece here.

Bellingcat and The Sunday Times last week published photographs showing ex-UFC fighter Mounir “The Sniper” Lazzez with wanted cartel leaders Christy and Daniel Kinahan. 

The images, captured during the 971 Fighting Championship in Dubai last June, mark the most recent sighting of the Irish narco-traffickers since the US government put multi-million dollar bounties on their heads in 2022.

At different points during the six-hour fight night, Lazzez, who ran the event at the Coca-Cola Arena, is seen talking to both crime bosses, who were seated cageside at opposite ends of the front row, on white sofas designated for VIPs.

Lazzez is captured with Daniel Kinahan in a since-deleted high-resolution image uploaded to a professional photographer’s website, and in a picture posted to Instagram by a spectator. 

He is also visible in the official live-stream. About two hours in, Lazzez taps Christy Kinahan, the founder of the eponymous drug cartel, on the arm. Three hours later, he crouches in front of the 68-year-old while looking at this phone, before sitting on the arm of Kinahan’s chair.

Today, we reveal that Lazzez — an outspoken supporter of Daniel Kinahan — has business interests extending far beyond the world of combat sports.

Documents uncovered by Bellingcat link the 38-year-old to multimillion dollar shipping deals, orchestrated by companies in a secrecy jurisdiction, for crude oil tankers that were later sanctioned by the US government for helping the Iranian regime.

The firms that bought these ships were headquartered at an address used for registering offshore companies — including a separate firm that owned a Kinahan cartel-linked bulk carrier loaded with more than two tonnes of cocaine.

Who is Mounir Lazzez?

Lazzez has been held up as an icon in the world of combat sports as the first Arab born-and-raised fighter to be signed to the UFC.

Originally from the port city of Sfax in Tunisia, he said he had a “tough life” and had to “fight to get everything”. In one interview, Lazzez explained how he started MMA classes as a teenager. A “skinny kid” who was being bullied, his parents thought the sport would boost his confidence.

Eventually, Lazzez said, he went on to compete nationally and then, in his early 20s, moved to Canada to hone his skills. It was a “business opportunity” that drew him to Dubai, where he also started his professional MMA career.

The 6’1″ welterweight was signed to the UFC in 2020 after being recommended to long-time president Dana White by a friend of White’s teenage son. Earning the nickname “The Sniper” for his precision strikes, he fought four times between 2020 and 2023.

For the latter part of his MMA career, Lazzez was represented by MTK Global, the now-defunct sports management company co-founded by Daniel Kinahan, who authorities have said is responsible for managing the cartel’s drug trafficking operation.

Lazzez has spoken publicly about his relationship with Daniel Kinahan, describing him as a “good friend, brother and advisor”. In 2021, he wrote on social media: “I’ve never met a man like him”.

He made headlines in 2022 when he thanked Kinahan from inside of the cage after a win in Las Vegas. “Without him, I would never be the man who I am today,” Lazzez told the crowd.

When questioned about his comments later, Lazzez said the cartel boss – who had been sanctioned just days before — was “a friend and adviser.”

Now retired from combat sports, Lazzez had, until recently, lived in Dubai and was listed as the part-owner of a gym, the 971 MMA & Fitness Academy, in the industrial district of Al Quoz.

He launched the 971 Fighting Championship in 2024, promising to “change the face” of combat sports. Last year’s outing at the Coca-Cola Arena was its second event.

But our investigation has uncovered records tying Lazzez to other ventures before he started the 971 Fighting Championship.

In 2023, he was listed as the director of two companies that paid more than $80 million for two oil tankers. Both ships were sanctioned the following year for their roles in assisting the Iranian regime.

The Sunday Times has previously reported on the Kinahan cartel’s involvement in arms smuggling and money laundering, and its alliances with other crime fraternities. Among the gang’s alleged clients are Iran’s intelligence services and the Lebanon-based Islamic militant group Hezbollah. 

The new findings uncovered in this investigation raise serious questions about Lazzez’s relationship with the most senior members of the US-sanctioned Kinahan Organised Crime Group.

Bellingcat contacted Mounir Lazzez by phone, email and social media but did not receive a response.

A staff member who answered the phone at Dubai’s 971 MMA & Fitness Academy said Lazzez has had no involvement in the business since October 2025. Asked how Lazzez could be contacted, the man said: “That’s the problem, we don’t have anything from him since he left. He doesn’t work here with us anymore.” 

A series of messages and calls to the gym’s management and two other owners were not answered.

Further enquiries last week found that Lazzez had moved to Italy, where his wife is from, late last year. In October, Marco Fioravanti, the mayor of Ascoli Piceno, a town in central Italy, posted a photo of him meeting with the ex-UFC fighter.

A local news report published in December said the “combat sports icon” was now offering personal training sessions from two gyms in the region. “Today, my motivation is teaching,” Lazzez was quoted as saying. “I’ve lived the athlete’s life at the highest level, and now I want to pass on my experience to others.”

New Instagram and Facebook profiles set up under the name “ML MMA & Fitness” and advertising personal training with Lazzez included an email address in his name and an Italian mobile number.

The social media accounts were deleted or made private last week immediately after Bellingcat sent messages. Phone calls and emails to Lazzez were not returned.

Lazzez, who founded the 971 Fighting Championship in 2024, said he was focused on expanding the event. After the 14-bout card last June, the 971 FC Instagram page asked fans who they wanted to see perform at the next fight night, and posted: “We’re just getting started”. Lazzez said there was “more in the pipeline”. In an interview at the time, he was also quoted saying: “This is not just a business. We’re not doing this for profit. This is about legacy.”

After more than a decade living in the UAE, it is not known why Lazzez and his young family relocated to Italy in recent months.

MMA to Multi-Million Maritime Deals

Bellingcat ran Mounir Lazzez’s name through open source corporate databases to determine if he was involved in any business activities other than his Dubai gym, the 971 Fighting Championship, and his new venture in Italy.

Two results were returned via Horizons, a platform that aggregates public records and which was created by Washington DC-based nonprofit C4ADS. The files, sourced from the Panama Flag Registry, include title documents showing the owners of ships registered under the Panama flag up until August 2024.

$41.75M

$42.75M

Mounir Lazzez

Director

Company 1

Marshall Islands

SANCTIONED

Oil Tanker

Panama Flagged

SANCTIONED

Company 2

Marshall Islands

Oil Tanker

Panama Flagged

SANCTIONED

The documents reveal that Lazzez was listed as the director of two companies that bought two ships over a three month period in 2023.

He was listed as the director of Dragon Road Limited, a Marshall Islands-registered company that bought an oil tanker called “Alisha” in July 2023.

The oil tanker, which was sold by Dragon Road last year, has gone by four different names since 2013. Source: Image posted to MarineTraffic in 2024 by Ivan Meshkov.

A bill of sale for the Panamanian-flagged ship shows that Dragon Road paid US $41.75 million for the vessel, which was then renamed “Serene I”.

Documents showing Dragon Road’s purchase of Alisha (renamed Serene I). Source: C4ADS Horizons

The following year, in September 2024, Dragon Road was sanctioned, along with Serene I.

The US government said it had loaded products belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) on behalf of a company affiliated with Hezbollah.

The records from Horizons also show that Mounir Lazzez was listed as the director of a second Marshall Islands-based company called Faith Enterprise Limited in 2023.

Faith Enterprise bought a 330m Panamanian-flagged oil tanker called “Luna Lake”.

The vessel has since been sold to unknown owners and renamed Eternity. Source: Image posted to MarineTraffic in 2025 by Christoph Ortmann.

The 2023 bill of sale said Faith Enterprise paid US $42.75 million for the vessel, which was renamed “Phonix”. The paperwork was notarised at the Panamanian consulate in Dubai, where Lazzez lived at the time.

Documents showing Faith Enterprise’s purchase of Luna Lake (renamed Phonix). Source: C4ADS Horizons

The tanker was sanctioned by the US government in December 2024 for allegedly transporting Iranian oil. Faith Enterprise was dissolved by the time the ship was sanctioned and it is unclear who the owner was. A third company, India-based Vision Ship Management LLP, was also sanctioned for managing and operating Phonix. While this company has no known ties to Lazzez, shipping data platform Equasis shows that the same company also managed Serene I.

Tracking data from Global Fishing Watch shows that both Serene I and Phonix departed the Singapore Strait, toward the Persian Gulf, weeks after they were sold to the firms that listed Lazzez as their director. Both tankers then made at least two round trips between the Persian Gulf and China in the following months.

Source: Global Fishing Watch

The Sunday Times reports today that tankers of this size could carry up to 1.1 million barrels of oil which, at market rates, represents a cargo worth US $90 to $100 million. It said entities facilitating such shipments could earn as much as 10 per cent of each trade – US $10 million per voyage.

In each of the shipping documents, Lazzez's signature is declared authentic by a named ambassador or consul general of Panama. Lazzez’s method of identification used in the sale of Serene I, which was detailed in the documents, was an Italian passport.

Bellingcat confirmed Lazzez’s Italian passport number through a Bing search, which returned a document from the Government of Dubai’s official website showing that it was used on a commercial licence for Nine Seven One Rising Mixed Martial Arts Academy LLC — the entity behind Lazzez’s gym, 971 MMA & Fitness Academy.

Lazzez posted on social media in 2022 about becoming an Italian citizen.

Corporate documents list Lazzez as one of three owners of Nine Seven One Rising Mixed Martial Arts Academy LLC. According to the documents, Lazzez has a 25 per cent share in the business. 

The other two owners are both citizens of the Caribbean Island of Dominica. One of these people, according to their public profiles, studied law in Iran and specialises in maritime law. The other is named in the Panama Papers and appears to be involved in the global shipping industry.

Neither of these people responded to questions from Bellingcat.

Dragon Road and Faith Enterprise were both set up in 2023, three months and one month respectively before buying the vessels, according to records accessed via International Registries, Inc.

Dragon Road was annulled in September 2024, the same month the sanctions were imposed. Faith Enterprise was dissolved in September 2024, nine weeks before the ship it bought was sanctioned.

The names of company directors, shareholders and beneficial owners are not publicly accessible in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. While Lazzez was listed as the director of Dragon Road and Faith Enterprise in 2023, according to the documents accessed via Horizons, it is not known if he was still a director in 2024. It is also unknown if these companies had other directors at the time.

What is known from the documents filed with the Panama Flag Registry is that both firms were headquartered at a Marshall Islands address that is commonly used for registering offshore companies, including Matthew Maritime Inc, which owned cocaine freighter the MV Matthew.

The Panamanian-flagged vessel was seized off the Irish coast in September 2023 and found to be carrying more than two tonnes of South American cocaine worth €157 million. It was the largest drugs seizure in Irish history.

The smuggling operation was reportedly part of a conspiracy involving the Kinahans and the Colombian Clan del Golfo. It was also reported that the operation was directed from Dubai, and that authorities suspected the involvement of Hezbollah and the Iranian government.

Connor Plunkett, Peter Barth, Beau Donelly and John Mooney contributed to this article. Scroll-driven interactive by Connor Plunkett and Miguel Ramalho.

Bellingcat is a non-profit and the ability to carry out our work is dependent on the kind support of individual donors. If you would like to support our work, you can do so here. You can also subscribe to our Patreon channel here. Subscribe to our Newsletter and follow us on Bluesky here, Instagram here, Reddit here and YouTube here.

The post Ex-UFC Fighter and Kinahan ‘Friend’ Mounir Lazzez Linked to Iran Sanctions appeared first on bellingcat.

This article is the result of a collaboration with The Sunday Times. You can find their corresponding piece here.

Kinahan cartel leaders Daniel and Christy Kinahan have been photographed in Dubai, marking the most recent sighting of the wanted crime bosses since the US government put multi-million dollar bounties on their heads.

The footage was captured just weeks after Kinahan cartel lieutenant Sean McGovern was extradited from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Ireland, where he was charged with murder and directing the activities of a criminal organisation.

Filmed during a mixed martial arts (MMA) event in June, the images are the first visual proof that the drug cartel’s leadership — who fled from Spain to Dubai in 2016 — were still in hiding in the desert city as recently as last summer.

Christy Kinahan, 68, and his two sons, Daniel, 48, and Christopher Jr, 45 — the most senior members of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group — are wanted by authorities around the world. The three Irishmen have been sanctioned by the US government and are the subject of a collective $15 million reward for information leading to their arrest.

Bellingcat and The Sunday Times have previously revealed how Christy Kinahan left a trail of Google reviews exposing his movements and travel partners over a five year period. We also uncovered the gang’s links to a German businessman charged with trafficking cocaine in 2024, and to an Australian pilot who was killed during a failed drug run in South America last year.

Bellingcat discovered this new footage of the narco-traffickers after running a photo posted to social media of one of Daniel Kinahan’s adult sons — whose name was published last year — through face recognition search engine PimEyes.

It returned a professional photograph of Daniel Kinahan that was taken during the 971 Fighting Championship (971 FC) at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai’s City Walk district on June 14, 2025.

Pictured wearing a black top, baseball cap and glasses, he is sitting ringside next to the event’s founder and former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) athlete, Mounir “The Sniper” Lazzez.

(The image, which had been posted to a Dubai photography company’s website, was removed yesterday, hours after Bellingcat contacted a representative for the Kinahans to seek comment.)

A frame-by-frame sweep of official footage and user-generated content from the arena revealed that Christy Kinahan, the founder of the eponymous drug cartel, was also among the reported 6,000 spectators at the fight night.

The elusive crime boss — nicknamed “The Dapper Don” — is seen wearing a Panama hat, blue Polo shirt, white trousers and blue trainers.

These images of the cartel leaders are the first to emerge since Bellingcat published the most recent known photograph of Christopher Kinahan Jr in 2024, captured during a meeting with his father in a Dubai restaurant the year before.

The new footage of Daniel Kinahan marks the first time he has been pictured since the US government levied sanctions on the transnational organised crime group in April 2022.

The Man in the Panama Hat

The Kinahan cartel is one the world’s most notorious criminal organisations. Worth an estimated €1.5 billion, it is involved in drug trafficking, arms smuggling and money laundering operations around the world. Investigators have also linked the gang to Iran’s intelligence services and the Lebanon-based Islamic militant group Hezbollah.

It was reportedly part of a “Super Cartel”, a criminal network that controlled much of Europe’s cocaine trade. Five of the network’s key members have been arrested since 2017, but one — Daniel Kinahan — remains at large.

Daniel Kinahan, who authorities say is responsible for managing the cartel’s vast drug trafficking operations, has been heavily involved in combat sports since the early 2010s. He co-founded MTK Global, a boxing management firm that signed high-profile boxers including former world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.

Kinahan has previously been pictured with boxers and at sporting events, but there have been no confirmed public sightings of him in years. In 2022, after the US sanctions were announced, MTK Global shut down. With multi-million dollar bounties on their heads, the Kinahans fled their luxurious Dubai homes and have kept a low profile since.

After discovering the photo of Daniel Kinahan from the 971 Fighting Championship, Bellingcat searched for additional footage to verify the gangland figure was in the crowd. Multiple videos confirmed he was in attendance, seated in the stadium’s VIP section.

During this process, we also identified a man who strongly resembled his father and the founder of the drugs cartel, Christy Kinahan.

This man and Daniel Kinahan were seated at opposite ends of the front row, immediately around the eight-sided cage, on white sofas designated for VIPs.

We analysed the official footage from the event, a more than six-hour video from sports streaming service TrillerTV. In most of the footage in which the man is visible, his hand partially obscures his face.

However, it was clear that the man shared many of the physical characteristics of Christy Kinahan, including a similar build, facial features, and hair colour and length. The official live-stream, as well as footage posted to social media, showed his appearance was consistent with that of a man in his late sixties.

The man was also wearing a white Panama hat with blue band, a style the cartel leader has been known to wear.

In the image below, posted to social media six months before the 971 FC event, a close relative of Christy Kinahan poses with a Panama hat and wrote in the caption that it belonged to him. Bellingcat has not identified this person because they have no known involvement in crime.

Additionally, the person seated next to the man in the Panama hat throughout the fight night strongly resembled one of Christy Kinahan’s immediate family members. Bellingcat has not identified this person because they have no known involvement in crime.

Two individuals seated behind the man also closely resembled people that Bellingcat and its publishing partner The Sunday Times have linked to the cartel.

It was subsequently confirmed that the man in the Panama hat was Christy Kinahan. The Sunday Times confirmed his identity with three sources who either knew the cartel leader personally or have investigated his activities.

Fight Night, Familiar Faces

Christy Kinahan has served prison time in Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium but has evaded capture for more than a decade. He has received anti-surveillance training to conceal his identity and avoid drawing attention and, in recent years, used aliases to fly under the radar.

But Kinahan is visible throughout the entire live-stream of the 971 Fighting Championship — adding up to the longest known footage of the cartel leader that has ever been made public.

The Sunday Times reports today that his presence at a high profile event that live-streamed online was uncharacteristic for a criminal who has made a career of escaping detection.

“His appearance in the open, seated in such a public place, is all the more remarkable because it is so likely to draw attention, a stark departure for Kinahan, who typically operates like a ghost,” it said.

Bellingcat’s analysis showed that Christy Kinahan was in his seat at the very beginning of the event, when the VIP area was almost entirely empty, and stayed until the end of the last fight, more than six hours later.

He was also seen standing, walking and communicating with other people during the fight night. Kinahan was observed talking to 971 FC founder Mounir Lazzez, who sat next to him during the first round of the Junior Karanta vs Oli Thompson bout. At one point, Lazzez tapped Kinahan on the arm.

Daniel Kinahan appears to have spent less time in the arena, and is first seen in his seat almost four hours into the event. He is captured talking to Lazzez in this photo, taken shortly after Kurdistani fighter Namo Fazil won his bout.

Daniel Kinahan is not seen again after Irish fighter James Gallagher won his bout an hour later, which is when the professional photo of Kinahan and Lazzez was taken.

Tunisian-born Lazzez lived, until recently, in Dubai, where he is listed as a part-owner of a gym called the 971 MMA & Fitness Academy. He launched the 971 Fighting Championship in 2024, promising to “change the face” of combat sports.

Footage from the first 971 FC event, at The Agenda arena in Dubai in May 2024, was not clear enough to identify people in the crowd, but social media posts confirm that an immediate relative of Daniel Kinahan’s was present.

Lazzez has publicly backed Daniel Kinahan despite the global law enforcement efforts to apprehend him. In April 2022, days after the sanctions against the cartel were announced, he thanked Kinahan in a post-fight speech and subsequent media interview in Las Vegas. Lazzez has spoken about their relationship on multiple occasions, including describing Kinahan as a “good friend, brother and advisor”.

Bellingcat contacted Mounir Lazzez by phone, email and social media but did not receive a response.

Bellingcat also identified the people sitting on either side of Daniel Kinahan when the professional photograph was taken. They are a man and a woman who were both involved behind the scenes at 971 FC.

The man, who has previously worked in boxing promotion, had a senior role at the Coca-Cola Arena in June last year, including during the fight night, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The woman, who lists her most recent employment as an MMA event coordinator, appeared in footage posted to 971 FC’s social media that described her as being part of the production team. She is tagged in multiple posts about the event, including from an MMA fighter who participated on the night. The woman is also seen hugging Daniel Kinahan, talking to his adult son and sitting next to Mounir Lazzez.

This means that Kinahan, once a “major player” in the combat sports business, was surrounded by the 971 FC founder and two people who worked at the event. 

The man and woman did not respond to Bellingcat’s questions. There is no suggestion they are involved in any criminal activity.

No clear footage of the younger Kinahan meeting with his father was identified at the 971 FC event. However, during a mid-event performance by American rapper Lloyd Banks, shortly after the professional photo was taken, Daniel Kinahan’s seat was empty and a person wearing similar clothing (light coloured trousers, a dark top and baseball cap) is seen moving along the front row, greeting people, and embracing Christy Kinahan. 

The identity of this person could not be verified due to the low quality of the footage.

The Sunday Times reports today that the Kinahans continue to enjoy a VIP lifestyle in Dubai despite the UAE’s insistence that it has taken action against the cartel. “These findings suggest that the imposition of American sanctions has failed to significantly weaken the cartel and may, in fact, have made it more resilient,” it said.

“The Emiratis claim to have frozen €200 million in assets across UAE-registered businesses and mapped the organisation’s front companies and proxies; however, the Kinahans’ continued ability to operate in the open suggests these enforcement efforts have yet to strike a decisive blow.”

An extradition treaty between Ireland and the UAE was ratified in 2025, but to date it has only been enforced on Kinahan cartel lieutenant Sean McGovern, who was returned on an Irish military plane last May.

In December, Detective Chief Superintendent Séamus Boland, the head of Ireland’s drugs and organised crime bureau, said investigations into the Kinahan cartel were ongoing and that he hoped 2026 would be a “significant year”.

He was speaking ahead of the 10 year anniversary of Dublin’s Regency Hotel attack, when a rival gang attempted to assassinate Daniel Kinahan at a boxing weigh-in. The attack left Kinahan gang member David Byrne dead and sparked a bloody gangland feud that has resulted in 18 deaths.

Bellingcat contacted a representative for the Kinahans to seek comment but did not receive a response.

Correction: This article has been updated after originally stating that Mounir Lazzez “lives” in Dubai. Lazzez lived in Dubai until recently, but moved to Italy in late 2025. The article was updated on March 19, 2026.

Connor Plunkett, Peter Barth, Beau Donelly and John Mooney contributed to this article.

Bellingcat is a non-profit and the ability to carry out our work is dependent on the kind support of individual donors. If you would like to support our work, you can do so here. You can also subscribe to our Patreon channel here. Subscribe to our Newsletter and follow us on Bluesky here, Instagram here, Reddit here and YouTube here. 

The post New Footage Shows Wanted Kinahan Cartel Kingpins Post-Sanctions appeared first on bellingcat.