Kinahan gang member wishes to return to Spain when released from Dublin prison

A notorious Kinahan gang enforcer has told a court that he intends to return to Spain and start a new life once he is released from jail.

Gerard Mackin, who was extradited from Alicante in December 2022, admitted to the Special Criminal Court in Dublin that he had made poor choices in the past.

But his counsel, Ronan Kennedy SC, said that Mackin would be on the first flight back to Spain after his release, bringing his family with him to start over clean. 

The one-time gangster has been in custody in Ireland since his arrest and will be sentenced on May 19, the Irish Daily Mirror report.

Mackin was an infamous criminal who had previously been convicted of a murder charge in a Dublin court, before his conviction was quashed and a retrial collapsed. 

Instead he pleaded guilty to laundering €4,780 as the proceeds of criminal behaviour in 2019.

The money was found to be held in a car parked suspiciously outside Mackin’s house.

The 40-year-old told the Irish police that the money was intended for his fiancée, but it was the prosecution’s case that the money was not derived from a deposit, but rather the proceeds of crime.

Mackin has faced a number of criminal trials in the past, all linked to his membership of the Kinahan Irish mafia clan.

In January 2011, the retrial of Mackin for the murder of Edward Burns, a taxi driver and father of five who was 36 years old, collapsed at the Special Criminal Court.

The State decided dramatically not to prosecute – known as ‘nolle prosequi’ – after the prosecution’s chief witness pulled out, citing threats to his life if he testified. 

While some of Mackin’s supporters present in court applauded and cheered, the victim’s family members openly wept.

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