Conor McGregor‘s sexual assault case has shone a light on his links to one of the world’s most feared organised crime gangs responsible for as many as 20 murders across four countries.
McGregor – who was once the world’s highest paid athlete – was left with his reputation in tatters after a jury found the mixed martial arts fighter attacked Nikita Hand who accused him of raping her in a Dublin hotel.
McGregor had faced an accusation that he ‘brutally raped and battered’ former hair colourist Ms Hand in a Dublin hotel penthouse, during a drink and cocaine-fuelled Christmas ‘after-party’.
The case brought into sharp focus the Ultimate Fighting Championship superstar’s wild lifestyle, his connections with Ireland’s ruthless and bloodthirsty Kinahan cartel, and the influence he has in the Irish capital.
The Kinahan Cartel is one of the world’s most notorious crime gangs led by Daniel Kinehan – who has a $15 million (£12 million) bounty on his head.
The former boxing promoter, who was an advisor to Tyson Fury, is being hunted by law enforcement agencies in Europe and the US and is now thought to be a prominent member of a Dubai-based ‘super cartel’.
McGregor is linked to the Kinahans through his sister Aoife who is dating convicted drug-dealer and money-launderer Graham ‘The Wig’ Whelan.
Whelan, 41, is a reputed mobster for the cartel, which is understood to be behind gangland slayings in their native Ireland as well as Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain.
McGregor, pictured with his sister Aoife, was found to have attacked Nikita Hand who accused him of raping her in a Dublin hotel by a jury
McGregor is linked to the Kinahans through his sister Aoife who is dating convicted drug-dealer and money-launderer Graham ‘The Wig’ Whelan. Last year she went public after sharing this image of them together at McGregor’s pub in Dublin
McGregor (centre) is pictured with Graham ‘The Wig’ Whelan (left)
The gang set up in Dublin in the late 1990s have cut a bloody swathe through Europe with their drugs and arms dealing and fierce rivalry with fellow Irish gangster Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch.
Whelan has been in a relationship with Aoife since 2021 and last year she went public after sharing an image of them together at McGregor’s pub the Black Forge Inn in the Dublin suburb of Crumlin.
The couple were seen sitting on the couch with a large glass of whiskey on the table in front of them. Aoife leant in closely for the picture with one arm draping over his shoulder and the other resting on his leg.
Whelan has also played several games for the pub’s football team and has appeared in a number of photographs with the former world champion cage fighter.
It’s believed the picture posted on Instagram was taken days after Whelan was released from jail after serving an 18-month sentence for money laundering offences.
Whelan was also a guest at the wedding of McGregor’s other sister Erin in County Tipperary in August and was snapped sitting close by to the MMA star at the lavish event.
A self-described ‘dangerous criminal’, Whelan was close friends with another cartel figure David Byrne, who was shot dead in a gun attack at Dublin’s Regency Hotel in February 2016.
Last Friday, McGregor was ordered to pay more than €248,000 (£206,000) in damages to Ms Hind after she won her civil claim against him.
Conor McGregor pictured drinking with Graham ‘The Wig’ Whelan
Whelan has been in a relationship with Aoife since 2021
The Kinahan Cartel is one of the world’s most notorious crime gangs led by Daniel Kinahan (pictured) – who has a $15 million (£12 million) bounty on his head
Ms Hand said the assault in December 2018 left her bruised and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
She gave harrowing evidence describing how she was choked and ‘kept thinking I would die’.
McGregor – who has four children with fiancée Dee Devlin who he has been in a relationship with since 2008 – denied the claims and said the two had consensual sex.
Ireland’s director of public prosecutions decided in 2020 not to bring criminal charges against McGregor and his friend James Lawrence due to a lack of evidence and no reasonable prospect of conviction.
But six years later Ms Hand was vindicated when a jury took six hours and 10 minutes to find in her favour in the civil trial against McGregor last week.
The star shook his head as the jury of eight women and four men returned with their verdict.
McGregor has been accused of sex attacks on at least four other occasions, all of which were dismissed police, most recently in Miami last year at the NBA Finals.
In every case case he has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and on at least one occasion sources close to him said allegations of sexual assault were mendacious and money-related.
McGregor and his partner leave the High Court after the case against him
Nikita Hand (pictured outside court on Friday) who successfully sued Mr McGregor for rape
In October 2019, almost a year after the hotel incident, McGregor was accused of another sex attack.
Police received another complaint against him from a woman who said he had sexually assaulted her in a car outside a Dublin pub.
The UFC fighter denied the claim and prosecutors did not pursue any action over the complaint.
In September 2020, McGregor was detained and questioned by authorities on the French island of Corsica for alleged indecent exposure and sexual assault in a bar.
He spent two days in custody.
Eight months later, police and prosecutors declared a lack of sufficient evidence to justify a criminal prosecution.
The investigation is said to have included DNA collection that corroborated his version of events.
In July 2022 an Irish woman claimed McGregor attacked her on his yacht during a party in Spain.
In 2022 Samantha Murphy claimed she was attacked by the fighter off Ibiza and jumped off his boat (pictured in St Tropez) to escape
McGregor, his mother Margaret and partner Dee Devlin outside the High Court in Dublin
The woman is understood to have claimed the UFC star kicked her in the stomach, punched her in the face and left her bruised during celebrations in Ibiza for his 34th birthday in July, describing him as ‘possessed’.
She said she was left with a broken arm after she was forced to flee the yacht by jumping the sea to escape.
Following the alleged attack – which McGregor always denied – she launched a civil and criminal case, which she later dropped.
Claims that he sexually assaulted another woman during the NBA final in Miami in July 2023 were also dropped four months later.
Yet the latest ruling has left McGregor’s reeling and has brought new focus on his connections, to the Kinahan Cartel which is led by Daniel, his father Christy Senior and brother Christy Junior who are also wanted by international law enforcement agencies.
The gang’s war with The Hutch Gang have seen at least 18 murders since 2015 as well as numerous beatings, stabbings, shootings and arson and pipe bomb attacks.
Their feud began in September, 2015, when Gary Hutch – nephew of Gerry – was murdered in Marbella, Spain.
Gary had been working closely with Daniel for some time before his death but by 2014 he was suspected as being an informant for the Spanish police.
The bad blood made international headlines on February 5, 2016.
Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch’ (pictured) has a fierce rivalry with the Kinahan Cartel
Gunmen toting AK-47-assault rifles disguised themselves as members of the Garda Emergency Response Unit before attacking a weigh-in at the Regency Hotel for the WBO European Lightweight title fight between Jamie Kavanagh and Antonio João Bento.
It ended in Byrne being shot dead. Two men were injured and taken to hospital. Daniel Kinahan was the intended target, according to security sources, but he had left early.
The Kinahans have become so established in the world of drugs that on April 12 2022, the US Department of State announced the offering of multi-million dollar rewards under the Narcotics Rewards Program for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Kinahan family members.
The reward is offered jointly with the Garda Siochana, the UK’s National Crime Agency and the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
Whelan has been linked to the Kinahans for several years.
Aged just 17, he was arrested following a now infamous drug bust at the Holiday Inn in Dublin in 2000.
Whelan was jailed for six-years following the €1.6 million seizure of ecstasy and cocaine.
He had 75,000 Euros (£62,660) seized from him following a Criminal Assets Bureau investigation which discovered that he had property in the UK and was in possession of a drugs ‘tick list’ and an EncroChat phone at the time of his arrest.
David Byrne (pictured) was shot dead in a gun attack at Dublin’s Regency Hotel in February 2016.
Whelan left Ireland in 2009 after the introduction of new gangland laws and moved to the UK where he lived until 2016 and was a close associate of the Kinahan cartel’s boss in Britain Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh.
Kavanagh, 56, was jailed for 21 years in March 2022 after importing cocaine and cannabis worth more than £30m.
He lived with his family in a fortified mansion, complete with reinforced doors and bulletproof glass, in Tamworth, Staffordshire, from where he ran his criminal empire.
Whelen was arrested again after he returned to Ireland and police raided the Intercontinental Hotel, in Ballsbridge, Dublin, on January 31, 2019.
They found him in possession of more than £1,000 in cash and a Swiss-made Audemars Piguet Royal Oak gentleman’s watch worth more than £23,000.
He pleaded guilty in July 2021 to participating in the actions of an organised crime gang by laundering money and admitted he had paid nearly £2,000 for a three-night stay at the hotel at Room 342, knowing or believing that the money was the proceeds of criminal conduct.