CARTEL BOSS SEAN SANDED OVER TO FACE MURDER RAP

KINAHAN cartel boss Sean McGovern is on his way back to Ireland - to face murder and gangland charges, it has emerged.

- BY MICHAEL O'TOOLE Crime and Defence Editor

The Star has learned McGovern described by United States authorities as Daniel Kinahan's closest confidant was given over to gardai by authorities in Dubai yesterday afternoon.

The officers are now accompanying him on an Air Corps flight back to his native Dublin.

It is expected to land at the Air Corps' base at Baldonnel, south County Dublin later today.

Once the plane lands on Irish territory, gardai on the flight with him will arrest and formally charge McGovern, 38.

He is to be charged with a murder connected to the Kinahan-Hutch feud that has claimed up to 18 lives.

And he will also be charged with directing the activities of an organised crime gang.

He will then be brought under massive security to the Criminal Courts of Justice complex in central Dublin.

He will then appear in front of three judges in the non-jury special criminal court.

The dramatic move to get McGovern back to Ireland in a Garda and Defence Forces operation that was shrouded in secrecy follows Dubai's arrest of McGovern, 38, in the desert oil state last October.

That was on foot of an extradition request from Irish authorities.

That was made after the Director of Public Prosecutions ordered that McGovern be charged with two offences.

McGovern is to be charged with the December 2016 murder in Clondalkin in the west of the capital of Noel Kirwan.