Mounir Lazzez, a former UFC athlete who once publicly praised sanctioned Irish cartel boss Daniel Kinahan, has now been linked to companies tied to the Kinahan organization through a new investigation by open-source intelligence outlet Bellingcat.
Just four days after the United States government imposed $5 million bounties on the Kinahan family and sanctioned their associated companies in 2022, Lazzez delivered a tribute to Daniel Kinahan.
“I would love to thank my coaches and my brother Daniel Kinahan. Without him, I would never be the man who I am today,” Lazzez said publicly at the time.
In another press conference, he stated, “That man is a friend and advisor. He picked me up when the life had kicked me down.”
When a reporter informed Lazzez that Kinahan had been sanctioned that same week for sourcing large quantities of c**aine from South America, Lazzez replied: “No, I don’t know that.”
Lazzez had been represented by MTK Global, the boxing and combat sports management company that Daniel Kinahan built. According to investigators, it is used by Kinahan to launder proceeds from d**g trafficking. MTK Global collapsed after the 2022 sanctions.
Until recently, Lazzez was listed as a part owner of a Dubai-based gym called 971 MMA Fitness Academy. But his ties to the Kinahan network appear to go considerably further than a shared gym membership.
A database compiled by the nonprofit C4ADS revealed that Lazzez ran two companies that paid more than $80 million to purchase two oil tankers in 2023. The following year, the US sanctioned one of those tankers for loading products belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard on behalf of a company affiliated with Hezbollah. The second tanker was found to be carrying Iranian oil.
The findings connect Hezbollah and Iran directly to companies owned by a man who has been publicly and personally close to Daniel Kinahan. Investigators say it represents further evidence that the Kinahan organization has not been dismantled but has instead continued to expand its reach into energy markets and international logistics.
Bellingcat investigator Connor Plunkett located Lazzez alongside Daniel Kinahan in images from a mixed martial arts event held in Dubai in June 2025.
Those same images also placed Kinahan and his father Christy in the crowd at the public event, the first confirmed sightings of either man in years.
Journalist John Mooney, who has covered the Kinahan organization for over a decade, said the evidence points to an organization that has grown rather than weakened since the sanctions.
“I don’t think their organization is bigger than it was in 2022. I know it is,” Mooney said.
