Inside brutal crackdown on Dubai’s super-rich drug barons who flaunt wealth with £50m private islands & stolen Van Goghs

PRIVATE £50m islands, stolen Van Gogh masterpieces and custom-designed supercars are all part and parcel of life as a Dubai drugs baron.

Brazen gangsters from across Europe have been living lives of untold luxury in the UAE, seemingly untouchable by the authorities… until now.

Ross McGill first became known to police for his activities as a senior member of the rangers ultras group, The Union Bears

Ross McGill posing in his white Rolls Royce

Stephen ‘Jimmy’ Jamieson was the former right-hand man of caged cocaine kingpin Jamie ‘Iceman’ Stevenson. He was among those arrested this week

Jamieson with his psychiatric nurse wife Charlene Bentley

In a radical crackdown which has rocked the criminal underworld, four kingpins were arrested in Dubai this week as gangland warfare rages across Scotland.

Ross ‘Miami’ McGill, Steven Lyons, Stephen ‘Jimmy’ Jamieson and Steven Larwood were all nicked in a desert swoop by Dubai cops, according to sources.

It comes after the biggest explosion of underworld violence seen in Scotland for years, with powerful drug lords pulling the strings from their UAE bolthole.

But for now these four major players are behind bars in Dubai while their lawyers launch a desperate fight for their freedom.

Their arrests are the latest in an apparent crackdown, as crime bosses from across Europe have also had their collars felt and are facing lengthy prison terms in their homelands after Interpol and the Dubai authorities got tough.

Journalist Geoff White, who has investigated cyber crime and money laundering in Dubai, believes the state may be clamping down to protect its international reputation.

He says: “There are a couple of possibilities. Number one is they are genuinely wanting to clean up Dubai and make it safe territory.

“They are certainly holding anti-financial crime events in Dubai and talking the talk. They also see crypto as a huge boom area for them, so regulating it and policing it would make sense.

“The other aspect is maybe they just got to the point that there were so many dodgy stories leading back to Dubai, they thought that they had to do something.

“Another possibility is that there could be concern about Dubai’s Financial Action Task Force rating slipping. If a country gets a FATF grey listing, it can cause huge problems.

“All the banks around the world start doing extra checks, the grey-listed country struggles to move money.”

With the spotlight now firmly on drug kingpins and their lieutenants in the Arab state, along with a flurry of extraditions, it means they may soon be on the hunt for a new safe haven away from the glitzy restaurants and boujee beach clubs of Dubai.

Experts believe that some of the major players are now looking to places like Indonesia, North Africa or Central and South America to escape the attention now on Dubai.

Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai, told The Sun: “I am certain that targets will soon be shopping for a new jurisdiction that may afford them more reliable protection.”

Money talks

Dubai is known for its seven star hotels, opulent beach clubs and designer shopping malls

Dzenis Kadric, second from the left, and Edin Gacanin, far right, who was arrested in Dubai in 2022 on suspicion of trafficking cocaine

Steven Lyons is the head of the Lyons crime group

With its year-round sunshine, seven star hotels, opulent beach clubs and designer shopping malls, Dubai has long been a favourite of influencers and celebs alike.

Ninety per cent of its population are migrants, meaning few people have roots there.

Coupled with a culture where money talks and no questions are asked, this made it the perfect bolthole for anyone wanting to live it large while flying under the radar.

Geoff White explains: “A lot about Dubai society is quite new and quite surface. The UAE is a relatively new country, so it feels like there are no deep roots in Dubai.

“It is the kind of place where if you spend a lot of money on an expensive car and expensive clothes, you are just taken on face value by many.

“If you look good, you are wearing the clothes, you talk the talk, they’re not going to ask where you came from, what your background is, where your money came from, because so many people have no background or roots in the country.

“Dubai doesn’t have a long background or roots. It is the perfect zone to create a whole new life for yourself.

“People can have a lovely career as a social media influencer, but also criminals can go there and escape their past.”

New ‘Costa del Crime’

But the desert city also has other more dubious attractions which have made it home to some of the world’s most powerful drug lords.

Its proximity to the ‘Golden Crescent’ drug supply chain, lax financial rules – which make it easier to clean up dirty cash – and a seemingly reluctant extradition process have made Dubai the new Costa del Crime where some of Europe’s most feared drug barons have relocated.

As much as a formal extradition treaty exists between the UAE and the UK, signed in 2006 and in force since 2008, the reality is that extraditions have been few and far between over the years.

The UAE has no formal extradition treaty with the EU or the US.

And perhaps even more enticing is the underground secret banking system called Hawala, which could seemingly move money magically across the globe with no paper trail.

Dr Paul Gilmour, senior lecturer in economic crime at the University of Portsmouth, says Dubai’s location has made it the perfect hub for drug lords.

“Dubai is a major international financial centre with a booming economy, located around the ‘Golden Crescent’ drug trafficking region of the Middle East,” he explains.

The Golden Crescent is the major and strategic hub for the supply of opiates, predominately from Afghanistan to nearby countries in the Middle East, through the Balkan countries and onwards into Europe.

Dubai is also home to many British expats, companies and wealthy individuals wishing to benefit from the city’s tax incentives, free-trade zones and strong ties to financial markets and networks.

Up until recently mob Godfathers had pretty much been able to hide in plain sight in the city – dining in the finest restaurants and doing business.

In April 2017 four of Europe’s biggest cocaine traffickers brazenly sat down together at the seven star Burj Al Arab hotel to talk business.

The four men were Ridouan Taghi, a Dutch Moroccan kingpin; Raffaele Imperiale, a senior member of the Italian Naples-based Camorra mafia; Irish mobster Daniel Kinahan, and a Bosnian drug lord named Edin Gacanin.

Ridouan Taghi, a Dutch Moroccan kingpin, has been arrested and extradited back to his home country

Raffaele Imperiale, a senior member of the Italian Naples-based Camorra mafia, will also face justice

But agents from the US Drugs Enforcement Agency (DEA) were watching the coming together of this super-cartel.

Between them these four men were, according to the DEA, controlling a third of the cocaine trade in Europe.

Since then both Taghi and Imperiale have been arrested and extradited back to their home countries to face justice.

Imperiale enjoyed a lavish lifestyle in Dubai and allegedly spent €400,000 a month to maintain it.

He was known as “the Van Gogh boss” because he possessed two stolen paintings by the Dutch artist.

But when he turned mafia informant, Imperiale returned the paintings to the authorities.

He also handed over an artificial island he owns off the coast of Dubai to the Italian authorities in the hope of receiving a reduced sentence.

Imperiale bought the island, named Taiwan, during his time in hiding.

Its value was estimated at £52m-£61million and is part of an artificial archipelago off the coast of the United Arab Emirates called “The World”. But he was jailed for 15 years last year.

Fugitives

Daniel Kinahan is hiding with a bounty on his head

Caoimhe Robinson, Daniel Kinahan’s wife, (pictured) has sold and let millions of pounds worth of property in Dubai despite the freezing of her husband’s assets

Daniel Kinahan’s brother, Christopher Jr, remains free

Daniel Kinahan’s luxury gated home where senior members of the murderous gang hid out in 2014

Meanwhile Kinahan and Gacanin are in hiding with bounties on their heads and frozen bank accounts after the US imposed sanctions on them.

The US treasury described Gacanin as “one of the world’s most prolific drug traffickers” and Kinahan as “running the day-to-day operations of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group”.

Edin Gacanin was arrested in Dubai in 2022 on suspicion of trafficking cocaine, and the Netherlands requested his extradition.

He was sentenced in absentia to seven years in prison last November after cutting a deal, but Dubai authorities released him on bail in January last year and his whereabouts remain unknown.

The sanctions don’t seem to be bothering Daniel Kinahan too much, however.

His wife Caoimhe has sold and let millions of pounds worth of property in Dubai despite the freezing of her husband’s assets.

She is not the target of any sanctions or arrest warrants and – unlike other members of the Kinahan family – is not a fugitive.

No paper trail

Another attraction for gangs who want to do business without leaving a paper trail is the ancient Halawa system, which relies on a system of money brokers called Hawaladars who transfer money between each other on a trust basis.

Hawaladars can operate legally in Dubai and have only been required to officially register their work since 2021.

This system is believed to have allowed drug lords to invest heavily in high-end property and other businesses and leave little or no trace, cleaning up their dirty cash.

“Hawala is an informal value transfer system [IVTS] that has been popular in Middle Eastern communities for centuries,” explains Paul Gilmour.

“It involves money being transferred through informal rather than formal mechanisms and, thus, avoiding the traditional, centralised banking systems and government regulations we have today.

“These involve casual agreements within a network of trusted individuals overseas acting as ‘financial service providers’ or dealers and brokers to arrange the transfer funds across jurisdictions without funds ever entering the formal economy.

“Hawala, along with perhaps less-regulated services, such as Chinese Fei Ch’ien and other underground banking services, poses a risk of money laundering, as criminals may prefer to use IVTS to conceal their proceeds of crime from authorities.”

‘£3million a month’

Ross McGill recruited foot soldiers operating under the name Tamo Junto to carry out a wave of revenge attacks

McGill, pictured as a youngster, was a talented youth sprinter who ran for Scotland and was coached by a former Olympic athlete turned Tory MP

But while Daniel Kinahan, his father Christy – known as ‘The Dapper Don’ – and brother Christopher Jr remain free, some of their most trusted foot soldiers are back in the UK and behind bars.

Convicted cocaine baron Stephen ‘Jimmy’ Jamieson was believed to be leveraging a connection between Scottish gangsters Jamie ‘Iceman’ Stevenson and Steven Lyons.

He was arrested in Dubai in July, after five years on the run, but released on bail, before being nicked again in this latest swoop alongside Lyons, Ross McGill and Steven Larwood.

McGill and Larwood were believed to be raking in up to £3million a month from their luxury Dubai boltholes, overseeing narcotics shipment routes.

Former Rangers Ultra McGill was also believed to be orchestrating the underworld mayhem surging in Scotland with a series of firebombings, machete attacks and murder bids.

It is believed to have been triggered by claims associates of Edinburgh mob boss Mark Richardson, 38, had ripped off McGill in a cocaine deal using fake cash.

McGill, 31, of East Kilbride, recruited foot soldiers operating under the name Tamo Junto to carry out a wave of revenge attacks.

Lawyers for the four men are bound to be working hard behind the scenes to fight any bid to extradite them back to Scotland to face the music.

Already back from a sojourn in the sun is Sean McGovern, 39, who was sent back to Ireland in May to face a murder and gangland charges.

One of Kinahan’s senior lieutenants, he is the first person to be extradited from the UAE to Ireland.

His partner Anita Freeman, who has two children with McGovern, is believed to have stayed behind in Dubai.

Faissal Taghi – son of Ridouan Taghi, the infamous head of the Dutch-Moroccan Mocro Maffia – has also had his Dubai party lifestyle curtailed by the authorities

Steven Larwood moved out to Dubai to help run Jamie ‘Iceman’ Stevenson’s cocaine empire

And Faissal Taghi – son of Ridouan Taghi, the infamous head of the Dutch-Moroccan Mocro Maffia – has also had his Dubai party lifestyle curtailed by the authorities.

He was arrested in July last year and extradited to the Netherlands on drug trafficking and money-laundering charges.

Investigators suspect that drug money was invested in hairdressing salons and real estate projects in Dubai, as well as a Bentley Bentayga that was given to another brother as a birthday present.

He was flown back to Rotterdam on a heavily guarded private jet, and has since slammed the conditions he is being kept in behind bars.

“It feels like being buried alive,” he told a court in Schipol in November. “I have to shower behind glass, and under supervision.”

Unpredictability

In June this year French drug trafficker Abdelkader Bouguettaia, known as BIBI, was sent back to his homeland to face drugs charges.

Until then he had been flaunting his wealth around Dubai where he lived in luxury apartments close to the holiday home of David and Victoria Beckham.

He was known as a regular at celebrity haunts such as Salt Bae’s Nusr-Et Steakhouse, where a gold leaf fillet steak can cost around £1,500.

Already a convicted drug dealer, he is now back behind bars in his native France.

In June this year it was announced that the UAE had struck a deal with Europe to strengthen lines of communication to share intelligence to combat transnational organised crime.

But some experts say it remains to be seen if other more high profile kingpins will have their collars felt any time soon.

Radha Stirling says: “The arrests will concern others who may be at risk, but some higher-profile figures appear untouched. The UAE has a history of arbitrary law enforcement.

“Some remain protected, while others have been secretly removed without any due process. This unpredictability should concern both actual fugitives and innocent people who could be unfairly extradited to jurisdictions with poor human rights records.”

One who has already fled is French drug lord Tarik Kerbouci, known as The Bison. He is believed to be hiding out in the Middle East or North Africa under a false identity.

With the authorities seemingly flexing their muscles, others may now be hot on his heels.

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