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Senior Irish cartel suspect arrested in Spain: UK police

A senior member of an Irish transnational crime gang has been arrested in Spain for suspected gun running, Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) announced on Monday.

Senior Irish cartel suspect arrested in Spain: UK police
Senior Irish cartel suspect arrested in Spain: UK police. Photo: Josep LAGO / AFP

Liam Byrne, 42, from Dublin – described by the UK law enforcement agency as “one of the most trusted members of the Kinahan organised crime group” – was arrested in Spain on Sunday evening.

Based out of Dubai, the Kinahan cartel, led by Irishman Daniel Kinahan among others, has been linked by US and European authorities to a vast criminal enterprise encompassing drug smuggling and money laundering.

Byrne was arrested while he ate with family in a restaurant on the Spanish island of Mallorca.

He had flown into the Mediterranean holiday destination from the UAE on May 26th.

Another suspected member of the crime group, Jack Kavanagh, 22, from Tamworth, central England, was also held by Spanish police for firearms offences on May 30 as he transitted through Malaga from Dubai.

“This investigation is part of the NCA’s ongoing work targeting the Kinahan crime group,” said Kay Mellor regional head of investigations at the NCA, which investigates serious and organised crime.

“Liam Byrne and Jack Kavanagh have been evading justice for a number of years, but have now been arrested in relation to serious firearms offences.

“We… will continue to work closely with our international partners to ensure those who think they can stay under the radar have no place to hide,” she added.

Irish assistant police commissioner Justin Kelly called Byrne’s arrest a “particularly significant development in the efforts of international law enforcement to dismantle the operations of the Kinahan organised crime group”.

The NCA said the arrests in Mallorca followed an “intelligence-led investigation” supported by the Spanish National Police and officers from An Garda Siochana in Ireland.

Byrne and Kelly remain in custody as extradition proceedings against them continue.

In September last year, Spanish police arrested a British-Irish suspect believed to have moved 200 million in illicit cash for the Kinahans.

In April 2022 the US Treasury Department placed sanctions on senior Kinahan gang members prompting the UAE to follow suit shortly afterwards.

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CRIME

Top Spanish court rules kiss without consent is sexual assault

Spain's Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that a kiss without "tacit consent" can be considered sexual assault, just months before former football federation chief Luis Rubiales will stand trial over his unsolicited kiss at the Women's World Cup.

Top Spanish court rules kiss without consent is sexual assault

The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling from the southern region of Andalusia which convicted a police officer of sexual assault and sentenced him to one year and nine months in jail for kissing a woman on the cheek who was in police custody.

“A ‘stolen kiss’, and thus without express or implied consent, constitutes sexual assault in actuality,” the court said, adding that “it is clear that the fleeting contact of a non-consensual kiss represents a bodily invasion”.

“A ‘no’ from the victim is not necessary in the face of attempts to kiss a woman, but rather that for there not to be a crime, what is needed is consent. The key is consent, to the point that if consent has not been given, there has been sexual aggression.”

The issue of whether an unsolicited kiss can be considered sexual assault is a hot topic in Spain since Rubiales provoked worldwide outrage by kissing star player Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the medal ceremony after Spain beat England to win the World Cup in Australia last year.

At the time, Rubiales, 46, brushed it off as “a consensual” peck on the lips, but Hermoso, 34, said it was not.

She filed a lawsuit against Rubiales in September, telling the judge she had come under pressure to defend him both on the flight back from Australia and on a subsequent team holiday to Ibiza in the Balearic Islands.

Rubiales is set to stand trial from February 3 to 19 over the kiss. Public prosecutors have requested a sentence of two-and-a-half years in prison for Rubiales – one year for sexual assault and 18 months for coercion.

The former federation chief, who quit his post last year in the wake of the controversy, told private Spanish television station La Sexta in April that he could not understand how it could be labelled as sexual assault, saying there was “no sexual context” to it.

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