07.10.2025
7 min
710
In this article, you’ll learn how drug cartel boss Kinahan exposed himself through Google Reviews, leaving a digital trail that led investigators to his exact whereabouts. Using only open data, analysts reconstructed a map of his travels, uncovering hundreds of photos, videos, and reviews spanning the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. Every post, every geotag, even the reflections in the photos — became part of a mosaic that revealed the life of a man who had been on the run from justice for years.
One of the world’s most wanted men, a notorious drug lord whose gang is implicated in numerous murders, has left a series of Google reviews that provide valuable new information about his movements and whereabouts over the past five years.
Christopher Kinahan Sr. is the head of the notorious Kinahan organized crime group, which originated in Ireland and is also known as the Kinahan Cartel. Irish police believe the gang has amassed over $1 billion in profits over the years through illegal drug trafficking, arms dealing and money laundering.
The U.S. government is currently offering a combined reward of $15 million for information leading to the financial or arrest of Kinahan and his two sons (Daniel and Christopher Jr.). All three are reportedly in Dubai, which is still refraining from extraditing the wanted trio.
Numerous media reports suggest that Kinahan Sr. has attempted to reimagine himself in recent years, using his first and middle names as “Christopher Vincent,” given the notoriety now associated with the Kinahan surname.
Surprisingly, he has left behind a significant digital footprint associated with this identity, which has yielded valuable new insights into his activities and movements.
Kinahan Sr.’s LinkedIn account used the pseudonym Christopher Vincent, which was first discovered by the Irish newspaper Sunday World in 2022. Now, it appears that the owner of a profile with the identical name has been freely publishing his thoughts via Google Reviews since 2019. The account boasts international travel to countries including Spain, Hungary, Turkey, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Egypt, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Perhaps less surprisingly, the account has left reviews for a number of establishments in Dubai near where Kinahan Sr. lives.
Some reviews are brief and mundane, like a comment left for a restaurant in Istanbul in October 2021: “The restaurant is chic and luxurious, the service was good but not outstanding.” Others reveal interesting clues about his apparent activities in recent years. Some comments detail attending “business networking” conferences in Zimbabwe and watching the sunset with colleagues in South Africa while they “discussed some business.” Another claims that Kinahan Sr. is a “Platinum Ambassador” in an international hotel group’s rewards program.
No reviews of locations outside the UAE have been published since the US wanted list was announced in April 2022.
Working with The Sunday Times, journalists were able to confirm that the profile belongs to Kinahan Sr. He is credited with the email address associated with the account, as well as the physical address listed in US sanctions documents. In several published photos, his reflection can be seen in windows or mirrors.
For example, in a photo taken at a restaurant called Tasha’s in Dubai Marina in November 2022, Kinahan Sr.’s face is reflected in a nearby window.
Others show a man with a similar build and profile to Kinahan Sr., although his face is not fully visible. For example, a photo attached to the Hyatt Regency Barcelona Tower in Barcelona, Spain, in October 2021, shows a man with a similar hairstyle and build to Kinahan Sr. in the bathroom mirror.
A month later, the account posted a photo tagged with the Aurea Ana Palace Hotel in Budapest, Hungary. The person in the image again had a similar build and appearance to Kinahan Sr. Moreover, the jacket the person in the post is wearing is strikingly similar to the one Kinahan Sr. was photographed wearing earlier.
Last year, Kinahan Sr. posted a review of The Cycle Bistro Jumeirah in Dubai. “The service was good and the staff were pleasant and helpful,” he wrote. “The menu includes non-vegan, dairy, and sugar-free options.”
“I ordered the açaí, followed by eggs with almond bread and a green salad. My meal was beautifully presented and delicious. I give this place five stars.” The March 2023 post was accompanied by several photos of the cafe, which is located in a larger bike shop.
But the most compelling image was one that appeared on the restaurant’s social media pages a few months later, inadvertently showing Kinahan Sr. and Christopher Kinahan Jr. meeting during a return visit.
Although Kinahan Sr. is likely standing with his back to the camera, his son’s face is clearly visible. This is the most recent known photograph documenting both individuals. It appears that no feedback was left on this particular trip.
Kinahan Sr. is known as the “Mad Don,” allegedly because of his impeccable sense of style. He first went to prison in 1986 after being caught with more than $100,000 worth of heroin in Dublin, Ireland. He was released in 1992, but was imprisoned again in 1997 for possession of stolen checks. He also reportedly served time in Belgium.
Kinahan Sr. used his time in prison in the late 1990s to learn Spanish and Dutch, which reportedly helped him make connections in the international criminal world.
But Kinahan Sr. is not alone. His sons, Daniel and Christopher Jr., are key to the cartel’s operations, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. Daniel is best known for his previous significant involvement in boxing. He became a key player in the organization of major boxing fights, including world title fights. But this also brought much more attention to the source of his family’s wealth.
According to a report by the US State Department, the Kinahans initially distributed South American cocaine in Ireland, as well as heroin, before expanding their operations to the UK and then to continental Europe.
According to a 2022 Europol report, the gang was also involved in at least 20 murders.
When a dramatic plot to kill Daniel Kinahans during a weigh-in before a boxing match at Dublin’s Regency Hotel in 2016 failed, it led to an outbreak of violence between the Kinahans and their rival, the Dublin-based Hutch gang. According to media reports, at least 18 people were killed in the ensuing violence.
Kinahan Sr. moved to Dubai in 2016 after the incidents. He previously lived in southern Spain and has made several trips there since then, according to his Google reviews.
Kinahan Sr.’s Google reviews began appearing in 2019, when he left a three-star review for Bareburger City Walk in Dubai, near the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.
The following month, he wrote about Dubai’s City Walk shopping district: “A great place to walk around, especially in the evenings, lots of restaurants to choose from. Family (kid) friendly, relaxed and laid-back atmosphere. I would definitely give this area a five-star rating, but it’s not cheap.”
He has posted a total of 221 reviews, the most recent of which is a four-star review dated March 29, 2023 (no comments) for the InterContinental Fujairah Resort in the emirate of Fujairah. The hotel is located about 95 miles from Kinahan Sr.’s home base in Dubai.
In total, Kinahan Sr. left 102 reviews for establishments in the UAE, 45 in Spain, 28 in Zimbabwe, 16 in South Africa and 14 in Turkey. He also marked a smaller number of reviews in Portugal, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Hungary, Egypt and Belgium.
Kinahan does not appear in any of the photos posted to the account, other than those where he likely inadvertently captured his own reflection. The profile’s activity statistics show that he posted more than 1,100 photos and four videos to accompany his reviews, although not all of them remained accessible when viewed by The Sunday Times.
Many of these photos reveal valuable clues about his lifestyle, movements, and claims to have run businesses in various locations.
For example, an October 2021 review of Harvard Cafe at Rand Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, states: “We watched a stunning sunset while having drinks and discussing some business. The food was delicious, the company was equally good, but the only slight downside was that the service didn’t quite match the cuisine.”
Kinahan Sr. also spoke about business trips to Turkey, where he noted that his stay at the Crowne Plaza Florya Istanbul was “convenient due to its proximity to Ataturk Airport.” He also added that one of the employees who served him at the restaurant deserves “special thanks” because he was “extremely helpful, courteous, and professional.”
In October 2019, Kinahan Sr. attended the Global Humanitarian Aviation Conference (GHAC), hosted by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) at the Steigenberger Alcazar Hotel in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Kinahan’s presence at the event was first reported by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Kinahan’s Google review states: “I was here for the 11th Global Humanitarian Aviation Conference, hosted by the United Nations and WFP. The service and food were good, as were the conference facilities.”
The ICIJ reported that Kinahan attempted to broker a deal to purchase a fleet of military transport aircraft from Egypt shortly after the event, although the sale was never completed.
In an October 2021 review, Kinahan Sr. also posted about a four-day trip west from business networking meetings in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Irish media reported in 2022 that Kinahan had considered setting up a base in Zimbabwe, where he would pose as a British businessman working in the aviation sector. Although the Zimbabwe Independent reported last year that Kinahan had subsequently abandoned the plan.
In 2023, The Sunday Times reported that the Kinahan cartel had attempted to buy gold in Zimbabwe, transiting it through South Africa on to Dubai to help launder the gang’s drug profits. Kinahan Sr. had published numerous reviews of establishments in South Africa between 2019 and 2021. The Sunday Times similarly reported that the aircraft deal could have been part of a scheme to divert aircraft parts to Iran, given that Kinahan had met with potential Iranian partners while in Zimbabwe. Such a scheme was likely designed to circumvent international sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic, the Sunday Times reported.
“Dear Don” has also written about his experiences on trips that were seemingly less business-like. He has reviewed three Irish bars: O’Reilly’s Irish Pub in Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Corner Irish Bar in Lisbon, Portugal; and Paddy’s Emerald Sports Bar in Malaga, Spain. Kinahan Sr. has also reviewed a casual bar in Hong Kong and a Pizza Hut in Harare, Zimbabwe.
In Dubai, he has reviewed dozens of establishments, including chains like Wagamamas, PF Chang’s, and Pret A Manger.
Insinuating that Kinahan Sr. enjoys the luxuries of life, one 2021 review describes a visit to a Rolex store in Dubai, where a helpful assistant provided him with a “short-term solution” to a problem. Another review shows him supposedly in business class on an Emirates flight that same year.
Meanwhile, a post from September 2022 details a “fishing trip with friends” in Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. The accompanying photo shows a fishing charter sailing past a luxury superyacht, Motor Yacht A, valued at $300 million.
Finding reviews of Kinahan Sr. on Google was fairly easy. After previous media reports that he used the name Christopher Vincent, a simple web search returned a result for a Google reviews user with that name.
A search for “Christopher Vincent” “Sharjah” returned a result near the top of the Google page for a website called Wanderlog. Sharjah, a district north of Dubai, was added to the search operator based on the hypothesis that the Kinahans might have once been there. This also meant that news stories about the Kinahans that contained the term “Dubai” would be filtered out. Other areas of Dubai were checked using the same method. Interestingly, the Wanderlog website appeared among the results because it had pulled up a review of a steak restaurant by a user named Christopher Vincent into Google.
In addition to geographical clues and visual evidence of Kinahan Sr. appearing in mirrors and windows of other publications, it was also possible to gather additional information about the owner of a Google review profile by looking at the email address attached to it.
It is not possible to link a Google review profile to an email address. However, it is possible to do the reverse, linking an email address to a Google review profile using the open-source tool GHunt – provided the email address is known.
Entering several email addresses suspected of belonging to Kinahan Sr. yielded no results. However, one, found buried deep in the source code of a website at www.christopher-vincent.com, did. The site is no longer operational, but a version of it is archived by the Wayback Machine. The website was first reported by the Sunday Times in November 2023.
The contact address on the site could not be linked to the Google Reviews profile, but another address in the source code could be linked.
When you open the archived website in Firefox, the source code opens to a page that displays a Gmail address with the name “Christopher Vincent.”
By entering this address into GHunt, we can find the public Google account information associated with the email address.
In the “Map Data” section of the GHunt results, we see a link to the Google Reviews profile.
The link (archived here ) leads to the same review profile that was analyzed in this investigation, confirming the email address was linked.
Going even further, we were able to enter the same email address into the WhoisXML API, a platform that can retrieve information about website owner records. This revealed that the address was also linked to a domain called scryinsider.com.
The domain is no longer available online. However, a check of historical WHOIS records shows that it was registered in October 2013 under the name “christopher vincent kinahan.” Furthermore, WHOIS records show that the physical address associated with the domain matches the Spanish address listed in the U.S. Treasury sanctions against Kinahan Sr.
While the cartel’s top brass remains wanted, Kinahan Sr.’s reviews of luxury shopping malls, restaurants, and hotels suggest that they are largely unregulated in Dubai.
Kinahan Sr. even raved about the official branch of the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism, where residents and citizens are issued Emirates ID cards. He described meeting a security guard who was “very helpful, directing me to a machine and then advising me on how to use it. Based on my experience visiting this office, I would rate this visit 5 stars.” Some reports suggest that the Irish and Emirati authorities may be close to an extradition agreement for the Kinakhans. However, as of today, this has not yet happened.
