May.26, 2010, 12:36:00

ELEANOR HALL: To the drug war in Europe now and the capture of the man authorities have dubbed the "Irish Godfather".

European officials arrested Cristy Kinahan at his coastal mansion in Spain overnight and charged him with running a drug-dealing, gun-running and money laundering syndicate.

In a series of coordinated raids across six countries, 32 people, including Kinahan's two sons, were also arrested, as Michael Vincent reports.

MICHAEL VINCENT: For years the Costa del Sol in Spain has been attractive to English and Irish citizens. But the relaxed Mediterraneanseaside location has also been dubbed the "Costa cel Crime" for all the underworld figures who like to spend time relaxing in the sun and laundering their money.

Cristy Kinahan's time in the sun ended this morning when authorities raiding his 10-million pound mansion. His sons Cristy Junior and Daniel were also arrested at the home.

Garda commissioner Fachtna Murphy.

FACHTNA MURPHY: People go after the sun or hide in the sun or hide in some foreign clime and go and see, think that the borders can help them to conceal their ill gotten gains and traffic in illicit drugs but there is no hiding place.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Irish police say 53-year-old Kinahan has never held a job, although he has served time for drug-dealing and financial crimes before.

Today he's been accused of running a drug syndicate which initially imported cocaine to Ireland. But then he's alleged to have changed to importing marijuana, the theory being that it would be less risky due to less public outcry or police attention.

Irish radio RTE's crime correspondent Paul Reynolds.

PAUL REYNOLDS: The way they operated was they set up companies, food companies ostensibly and these were obviously front companies. In Ireland there were two that the Garda National Drugs Unit have at least discovered and these rented out warehouses and then they imported things like pasta or other type of food stuffs, but really these were a cover for drugs.

The drugs were brought in in huge truckloads from the continent into Dublin, usually brought to a warehouse on the outskirts of Dublin, whether that be in Kildare or Meath or wherever, and then the drugs were stored there.

And then particular criminal drug dealers, local drug dealers would put in their orders, they would arrive with a van, they would be met by the gang's operatives who would take the van from them, bring it to the location, the warehouse where the drugs were being stored. The criminals who were the distributors wouldn't know where the drugs were being stored, the vans were then loaded up, the money was handed over and the drugs were transferred.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Kinahan was alleged to have been running the syndicate from his Spanish mansion where he also offered money laundering opportunities to his competitors.

Four Spanish lawyers have also been arrested as part of the operation code named Shovel.

PAUL REYNOLDS: For example the network offered criminals a money laundering service to allow them to describe, ah, disguise the crime profits and much of this was ploughed into building profits. There was a huge building boom on the Costa del Sol. The assets of this organisation is estimated by the police to be worth over 200 million euro.

They invested their money in property, in businesses, really in anything that was going and that has made much of this investigation into their activities.

MICHAEL VINCENT: The early morning raids involving 750 officers were carried out across Ireland, the UK and Spain. Properties were also reportedly raided in Belgium, Cyprus and Brazil.

The lengthy legal process now begins in Spain, where Kinahan and his associates will be held while a judge investigates their case before extradition can be carried out.

Kinahan will be wondering what brought him undone.

Transnational crime specialist at the Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counterterrorism at Macquarie University, associate professor John Langdale says money-laundering for his competitors may not have been any protection.

JOHN LANGDALE: Most strategic alliances in the criminal world and in fact in the legal world don't last very long.

MICHAEL VINCENT: So even if they were laundering millions and millions of euros or pounds in this operation for a competitor that may not necessary stop that competitor from providing information to authorities to sort of bring them down?

JOHN LANGDALE: That's right. I mean if it suits them and they felt, the competitor felt that they could muscle in on their territory then the competitor would take advantage of that.

ELEANOR HALL: That's associate professor John Langdale, a transnational crime specialist at the at Macquarie University speaking to Michael Vincent.