The
OLIVE PRESS
FREE
MALLORCA
Vol. 5 Issue 129
Your expat
voice in Spain
The real story behind the new Colin Firth blockbuster See page 6
www.theolivepress.es April 22nd - May 5th 2022
Partiers face rave rage ORGANISERS of illegal parties face massive fines of up to €300,000 in a Balear government crackdown. And guests could be left raving as they too could be ordered to pay out between €300 and €30,000 each in penalties under a proposed law. The regulations would affect Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera and are slated to be
brought in before the summer party season. In a new move landlords of properties rented out for parties would face the same penalties as the organisers - between €100,000 and €300,000. Not only would organisers, landlords and guests face hefty fines, but so too would suppliers of food and drink, marquees and other party essentials - a move that could have an effect on
the islands’ outdoor catering businesses. Mercedes Garrido, of the Balear government said: “We have been looking for measures to stop illegal parties and to make organisers think twice when they plan a party.” The regulations are targeted at mass events and not family gatherings such as birthday parties. Ibiza President of the Council Vicent Mari said illegal parties are defined as ‘a mass gathering, which is held outside the regulated channels that have a licence, and where there is transport, advertising, DJs and there is an entrance fee’.
VODKA SOUR
Expat businessman and his vodka firm named on US sanctions list for key links to Irish mafia THE expat boss of a wellknown costa drinks company has been named as a key member of one of Europe’s biggest mafia gangs. John Morrisey and his company Nero Vodka have been placed on a US Treasury department sanctions list for their association with the Kinahan crime cartel. The American government has placed sanctions on him, alongside other key associates of the Irish gang, who lived for many years in Spain. As well as Christy Kinahan Snr, Daniel Kinahan and Christopher Kinahan Jnr, the US has also put Morrisey and Bernard Clancy on its list. They, along with Ian Dixon and Sean McGovern, are said to be a key part of the Kinahan gang, who owned a string of gyms, restaurants and other businesses on the Costa del Sol, before moving to Dubai a
147 834
REWARD
REWARD
REWARD
OF UP TO
OF UP TO
OF UP TO
FOR INFORMATION LEADING TO THE FINANCIAL DISRUPTION OF THE KINAHAN CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION OR THE ARREST AND/OR CONVICTION OF FOR INFORMATION LEADING AL DISRUPTION OF THE
TO THE FINANCIAL DISRUPTI KINAHAN CRIMINAL ORGANIZ ON OF THE ATION OR THE ARREST AND/OR CONVICTION OF
TO THE FINANCI FOR INFORMATION LEADING ATION OR THE ARREST AND/OR KINAHAN CRIMINAL ORGANIZ ION OF CONVICT
Chri stop her Vinc ent Kina han , Jr. Joseph Kinahan Chri stop her Kina hanDaniel SUBMIT TIPS VIA E-MAIL TO KinahanTCOTips@dea.gov
SUBMIT TIPS VIA E-MAIL TO
SUBMIT TIPS VIA E-MAIL TO
KinahanTCOTips@dea.gov
KinahanTCOTips@dea.gov
HIGH PROFILE: Morrissey and wife Nicola in the local press (left) and (above) the US goverment wanted posters
few years ago. Their ‘interests’ were thought to reach along the Spanish costas.
Feud
While the gang still has an important influence here, its leaders started decamping to the Middle East after rival gangster Gary Hutch was killed near Marbella in 2015, leading to a bloody gang feud that spilled on to the streets of Mallorca. Innocent Irish civil servant Trevor O’Neill, 41, was murdered in front of his three young children while on holiday in Costa de la Calma in a case of mistaken identity. While the Kinahans moved on, ‘Johnny’ Morrissey, 62, stayed put to help run his high-profile drinks business Nero Vodka, which is owned on paper by his wife Nicola. Based in Spain for two decades, he had moved from Ireland where the country’s Criminal Assets Bureau dealt a hammer blow to his business there, seizing
El Corte Ingles after Morrissey fronted a €630,000 in cash and property. Now he looks set to come under a similar massive publicity campaign over the past microscope here, with the US describing few years, with events attracting many wellhim as ‘having worked for the Kinahan Or- known members of Spain’s expat society. ganised Crime Gang (KOCG) for several He was regularly seen splashed across newspaper pages and was a recent guest at the years’. The US Treasury claims he is involved in Marbella Film Festival. smuggling, money laundering and other key aspects of the Kinahan operation, including as ‘an enforcer’. The sanctions mean he and his THE sanctions mean any US asse partner Nicola, who are regularts held by those named must be frozen and reported to the ly seen on the costas party cirUS treasury In effe ct, US citizens are banned from doing . cuits, face the same economic business with the named people and their compan sanctions as the gang bosses. ies – anywhere
THE GOING GETS TOUGH...
Sanctions
Their Nero Drinks Company Ltd, registered in Glasgow, has specifically been put on the list of companies that face sanctions, alongside two others, a sports company, Hoopoe Sports, and a marketing company, Ducashew Trading. The high-end vodka brand is sold at many costa beach clubs and is even available in
Tel: 952 147 834
See pages 5 & 13
TM
in the world. This extends to non-US citizens US, or just transiting through. who are resident in the It almost certainly means that they will now be blacklisted by most other Western countries , who are expected to follow suit. Explaining the unprecedented move, US Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financia Nelson said: “The group smuggle l Intelligence, Brian cluding cocaine, to Europe, and s deadly narcotics, inlicit economy through its role is a threat to the entire in international money laundering. “Criminal groups like the KOCG nerable in society and bring drugprey on the most vulolence, including murder, to the -related crime and vicountries in which they operate. “The Treasury is proud to have coordinated so closely with our international counterparts ment will continue to use every , and the US governdismantle these criminal networksavailable resource to Among the radical moves, the .” US Treasury has even listed the home addresses and pass port numbers of all people on the list, including two addresses for the Kinahans in Spain.