Daniel Kinahan, the Irishman long alleged to be one of Europe’s leading organized-crime figures and drug traffickers, has been arrested in Dubai on an Irish warrant and is expected to be extradited to Ireland, the Financial Times reported.

Ireland’s police, An Garda Síochána, said Friday that an unnamed man in his 40s had been arrested for alleged serious organized crime offenses under a bilateral extradition agreement between Ireland and the United Arab Emirates, according to the FT. A police spokesperson confirmed to the newspaper that the man was Kinahan and said authorities expected him to be extradited.

The arrest marks a significant turn in a case that had highlighted Dubai’s role as a refuge for suspected European crime bosses. Kinahan, who the FT said had remained free in the UAE despite U.S. sanctions imposed four years ago, had not until now been charged by Irish or U.S. authorities.

The U.S. Treasury previously alleged that Kinahan was in day-to-day charge of a “murderous organization involved in the international trafficking of drugs and firearms,” the FT reported. Kinahan also cultivated a public image as a boxing promoter, which the newspaper said reflected a newer model of émigré organized-crime figures presenting themselves as legitimate international businessmen.

Kinahan’s 2017 wedding at Dubai’s Burj Al Arab hotel was attended by several leading European organized-crime figures, some of whom later became part of what Europol called “a super cartel” that at its peak allegedly controlled about one-third of Europe’s cocaine trade, according to the report. 

Irish Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan said the arrest followed his request to the UAE for Kinahan’s extradition and thanked his Emirati counterpart for what he described as strong judicial cooperation in criminal matters, the FT reported.

Michael O’Sullivan, a former head of the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau and former assistant commissioner, told the FT the arrest was a major development and a sign that the UAE was beginning to extradite suspects more regularly.

According to the FT, the U.S. has said the Kinahan Organised Crime Group emerged in the late 1990s and early 2000s as one of Ireland’s most powerful organized crime groups, with alleged involvement in international drug trafficking, firearms trafficking and money laundering. 

Read more at the Financial Times