This article is the result of a collaboration with The Sunday Times. You can find their corresponding piece here.

Bellingcat and The Sunday Times last week published photographs showing ex-UFC fighter Mounir “The Sniper” Lazzez with wanted cartel leaders Christy and Daniel Kinahan. 

The images, captured during the 971 Fighting Championship in Dubai last June, mark the most recent sighting of the Irish narco-traffickers since the US government put multi-million dollar bounties on their heads in 2022.

At different points during the six-hour fight night, Lazzez, who ran the event at the Coca-Cola Arena, is seen talking to both crime bosses, who were seated cageside at opposite ends of the front row, on white sofas designated for VIPs.

Lazzez is captured with Daniel Kinahan in a since-deleted high-resolution image uploaded to a professional photographer’s website, and in a picture posted to Instagram by a spectator. 

He is also visible in the official live-stream. About two hours in, Lazzez taps Christy Kinahan, the founder of the eponymous drug cartel, on the arm. Three hours later, he crouches in front of the 68-year-old while looking at this phone, before sitting on the arm of Kinahan’s chair.

Today, we reveal that Lazzez — an outspoken supporter of Daniel Kinahan — has business interests extending far beyond the world of combat sports.

Documents uncovered by Bellingcat link the 38-year-old to multimillion dollar shipping deals, orchestrated by companies in a secrecy jurisdiction, for crude oil tankers that were later sanctioned by the US government for helping the Iranian regime.

The firms that bought these ships were headquartered at an address used for registering offshore companies — including a separate firm that owned a Kinahan cartel-linked bulk carrier loaded with more than two tonnes of cocaine.

Who is Mounir Lazzez?

Lazzez has been held up as an icon in the world of combat sports as the first Arab born-and-raised fighter to be signed to the UFC.

Originally from the port city of Sfax in Tunisia, he said he had a “tough life” and had to “fight to get everything”. In one interview, Lazzez explained how he started MMA classes as a teenager. A “skinny kid” who was being bullied, his parents thought the sport would boost his confidence.

Eventually, Lazzez said, he went on to compete nationally and then, in his early 20s, moved to Canada to hone his skills. It was a “business opportunity” that drew him to Dubai, where he also started his professional MMA career.

The 6’1″ welterweight was signed to the UFC in 2020 after being recommended to long-time president Dana White by a friend of White’s teenage son. Earning the nickname “The Sniper” for his precision strikes, he fought four times between 2020 and 2023.

For the latter part of his MMA career, Lazzez was represented by MTK Global, the now-defunct sports management company co-founded by Daniel Kinahan, who authorities have said is responsible for managing the cartel’s drug trafficking operation.

Lazzez has spoken publicly about his relationship with Daniel Kinahan, describing him as a “good friend, brother and advisor”. In 2021, he wrote on social media: “I’ve never met a man like him”.

He made headlines in 2022 when he thanked Kinahan from inside of the cage after a win in Las Vegas. “Without him, I would never be the man who I am today,” Lazzez told the crowd.

When questioned about his comments later, Lazzez said the cartel boss – who had been sanctioned just days before — was “a friend and adviser.”

Now retired from combat sports, Lazzez had, until recently, lived in Dubai and was listed as the part-owner of a gym, the 971 MMA & Fitness Academy, in the industrial district of Al Quoz.

He launched the 971 Fighting Championship in 2024, promising to “change the face” of combat sports. Last year’s outing at the Coca-Cola Arena was its second event.

But our investigation has uncovered records tying Lazzez to other ventures before he started the 971 Fighting Championship.

In 2023, he was listed as the director of two companies that paid more than $80 million for two oil tankers. Both ships were sanctioned the following year for their roles in assisting the Iranian regime.

The Sunday Times has previously reported on the Kinahan cartel’s involvement in arms smuggling and money laundering, and its alliances with other crime fraternities. Among the gang’s alleged clients are Iran’s intelligence services and the Lebanon-based Islamic militant group Hezbollah. 

The new findings uncovered in this investigation raise serious questions about Lazzez’s relationship with the most senior members of the US-sanctioned Kinahan Organised Crime Group.

Bellingcat contacted Mounir Lazzez by phone, email and social media but did not receive a response.

A staff member who answered the phone at Dubai’s 971 MMA & Fitness Academy said Lazzez has had no involvement in the business since October 2025. Asked how Lazzez could be contacted, the man said: “That’s the problem, we don’t have anything from him since he left. He doesn’t work here with us anymore.” 

A series of messages and calls to the gym’s management and two other owners were not answered.

Further enquiries last week found that Lazzez had moved to Italy, where his wife is from, late last year. In October, Marco Fioravanti, the mayor of Ascoli Piceno, a town in central Italy, posted a photo of him meeting with the ex-UFC fighter.

A local news report published in December said the “combat sports icon” was now offering personal training sessions from two gyms in the region. “Today, my motivation is teaching,” Lazzez was quoted as saying. “I’ve lived the athlete’s life at the highest level, and now I want to pass on my experience to others.”

New Instagram and Facebook profiles set up under the name “ML MMA & Fitness” and advertising personal training with Lazzez included an email address in his name and an Italian mobile number.

The social media accounts were deleted or made private last week immediately after Bellingcat sent messages. Phone calls and emails to Lazzez were not returned.

Lazzez, who founded the 971 Fighting Championship in 2024, said he was focused on expanding the event. After the 14-bout card last June, the 971 FC Instagram page asked fans who they wanted to see perform at the next fight night, and posted: “We’re just getting started”. Lazzez said there was “more in the pipeline”. In an interview at the time, he was also quoted saying: “This is not just a business. We’re not doing this for profit. This is about legacy.”

After more than a decade living in the UAE, it is not known why Lazzez and his young family relocated to Italy in recent months.

MMA to Multi-Million Maritime Deals

Bellingcat ran Mounir Lazzez’s name through open source corporate databases to determine if he was involved in any business activities other than his Dubai gym, the 971 Fighting Championship, and his new venture in Italy.

Two results were returned via Horizons, a platform that aggregates public records and which was created by Washington DC-based nonprofit C4ADS. The files, sourced from the Panama Flag Registry, include title documents showing the owners of ships registered under the Panama flag up until August 2024.

$41.75M

$42.75M

Mounir Lazzez

Director

Company 1

Marshall Islands

SANCTIONED

Oil Tanker

Panama Flagged

SANCTIONED

Company 2

Marshall Islands

Oil Tanker

Panama Flagged

SANCTIONED

The documents reveal that Lazzez was listed as the director of two companies that bought two ships over a three month period in 2023.

He was listed as the director of Dragon Road Limited, a Marshall Islands-registered company that bought an oil tanker called “Alisha” in July 2023.

The oil tanker, which was sold by Dragon Road last year, has gone by four different names since 2013. Source: Image posted to MarineTraffic in 2024 by Ivan Meshkov.

A bill of sale for the Panamanian-flagged ship shows that Dragon Road paid US $41.75 million for the vessel, which was then renamed “Serene I”.

Documents showing Dragon Road’s purchase of Alisha (renamed Serene I). Source: C4ADS Horizons

The following year, in September 2024, Dragon Road was sanctioned, along with Serene I.

The US government said it had loaded products belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) on behalf of a company affiliated with Hezbollah.

The records from Horizons also show that Mounir Lazzez was listed as the director of a second Marshall Islands-based company called Faith Enterprise Limited in 2023.

Faith Enterprise bought a 330m Panamanian-flagged oil tanker called “Luna Lake”.

The vessel has since been sold to unknown owners and renamed Eternity. Source: Image posted to MarineTraffic in 2025 by Christoph Ortmann.

The 2023 bill of sale said Faith Enterprise paid US $42.75 million for the vessel, which was renamed “Phonix”. The paperwork was notarised at the Panamanian consulate in Dubai, where Lazzez lived at the time.

Documents showing Faith Enterprise’s purchase of Luna Lake (renamed Phonix). Source: C4ADS Horizons

The tanker was sanctioned by the US government in December 2024 for allegedly transporting Iranian oil. Faith Enterprise was dissolved by the time the ship was sanctioned and it is unclear who the owner was. A third company, India-based Vision Ship Management LLP, was also sanctioned for managing and operating Phonix. While this company has no known ties to Lazzez, shipping data platform Equasis shows that the same company also managed Serene I.

Tracking data from Global Fishing Watch shows that both Serene I and Phonix departed the Singapore Strait, toward the Persian Gulf, weeks after they were sold to the firms that listed Lazzez as their director. Both tankers then made at least two round trips between the Persian Gulf and China in the following months.

Source: Global Fishing Watch

The Sunday Times reports today that tankers of this size could carry up to 1.1 million barrels of oil which, at market rates, represents a cargo worth US $90 to $100 million. It said entities facilitating such shipments could earn as much as 10 per cent of each trade – US $10 million per voyage.

In each of the shipping documents, Lazzez's signature is declared authentic by a named ambassador or consul general of Panama. Lazzez’s method of identification used in the sale of Serene I, which was detailed in the documents, was an Italian passport.

Bellingcat confirmed Lazzez’s Italian passport number through a Bing search, which returned a document from the Government of Dubai’s official website showing that it was used on a commercial licence for Nine Seven One Rising Mixed Martial Arts Academy LLC — the entity behind Lazzez’s gym, 971 MMA & Fitness Academy.

Lazzez posted on social media in 2022 about becoming an Italian citizen.

Corporate documents list Lazzez as one of three owners of Nine Seven One Rising Mixed Martial Arts Academy LLC. According to the documents, Lazzez has a 25 per cent share in the business. 

The other two owners are both citizens of the Caribbean Island of Dominica. One of these people, according to their public profiles, studied law in Iran and specialises in maritime law. The other is named in the Panama Papers and appears to be involved in the global shipping industry.

Neither of these people responded to questions from Bellingcat.

Dragon Road and Faith Enterprise were both set up in 2023, three months and one month respectively before buying the vessels, according to records accessed via International Registries, Inc.

Dragon Road was annulled in September 2024, the same month the sanctions were imposed. Faith Enterprise was dissolved in September 2024, nine weeks before the ship it bought was sanctioned.

The names of company directors, shareholders and beneficial owners are not publicly accessible in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. While Lazzez was listed as the director of Dragon Road and Faith Enterprise in 2023, according to the documents accessed via Horizons, it is not known if he was still a director in 2024. It is also unknown if these companies had other directors at the time.

What is known from the documents filed with the Panama Flag Registry is that both firms were headquartered at a Marshall Islands address that is commonly used for registering offshore companies, including Matthew Maritime Inc, which owned cocaine freighter the MV Matthew.

The Panamanian-flagged vessel was seized off the Irish coast in September 2023 and found to be carrying more than two tonnes of South American cocaine worth €157 million. It was the largest drugs seizure in Irish history.

The smuggling operation was reportedly part of a conspiracy involving the Kinahans and the Colombian Clan del Golfo. It was also reported that the operation was directed from Dubai, and that authorities suspected the involvement of Hezbollah and the Iranian government.

Connor Plunkett, Peter Barth, Beau Donelly and John Mooney contributed to this article. Scroll-driven interactive by Connor Plunkett and Miguel Ramalho.

Bellingcat is a non-profit and the ability to carry out our work is dependent on the kind support of individual donors. If you would like to support our work, you can do so here. You can also subscribe to our Patreon channel here. Subscribe to our Newsletter and follow us on Bluesky here, Instagram here, Reddit here and YouTube here.

The post Ex-UFC Fighter and Kinahan ‘Friend’ Mounir Lazzez Linked to Iran Sanctions appeared first on bellingcat.

This article is the result of a collaboration with The Sunday Times. You can find their corresponding piece here.

Kinahan cartel leaders Daniel and Christy Kinahan have been photographed in Dubai, marking the most recent sighting of the wanted crime bosses since the US government put multi-million dollar bounties on their heads.

The footage was captured just weeks after Kinahan cartel lieutenant Sean McGovern was extradited from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Ireland, where he was charged with murder and directing the activities of a criminal organisation.

Filmed during a mixed martial arts (MMA) event in June, the images are the first visual proof that the drug cartel’s leadership — who fled from Spain to Dubai in 2016 — were still in hiding in the desert city as recently as last summer.

Christy Kinahan, 68, and his two sons, Daniel, 48, and Christopher Jr, 45 — the most senior members of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group — are wanted by authorities around the world. The three Irishmen have been sanctioned by the US government and are the subject of a collective $15 million reward for information leading to their arrest.

Bellingcat and The Sunday Times have previously revealed how Christy Kinahan left a trail of Google reviews exposing his movements and travel partners over a five year period. We also uncovered the gang’s links to a German businessman charged with trafficking cocaine in 2024, and to an Australian pilot who was killed during a failed drug run in South America last year.

Bellingcat discovered this new footage of the narco-traffickers after running a photo posted to social media of one of Daniel Kinahan’s adult sons — whose name was published last year — through face recognition search engine PimEyes.

It returned a professional photograph of Daniel Kinahan that was taken during the 971 Fighting Championship (971 FC) at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai’s City Walk district on June 14, 2025.

Pictured wearing a black top, baseball cap and glasses, he is sitting ringside next to the event’s founder and former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) athlete, Mounir “The Sniper” Lazzez.

(The image, which had been posted to a Dubai photography company’s website, was removed yesterday, hours after Bellingcat contacted a representative for the Kinahans to seek comment.)

A frame-by-frame sweep of official footage and user-generated content from the arena revealed that Christy Kinahan, the founder of the eponymous drug cartel, was also among the reported 6,000 spectators at the fight night.

The elusive crime boss — nicknamed “The Dapper Don” — is seen wearing a Panama hat, blue Polo shirt, white trousers and blue trainers.

These images of the cartel leaders are the first to emerge since Bellingcat published the most recent known photograph of Christopher Kinahan Jr in 2024, captured during a meeting with his father in a Dubai restaurant the year before.

The new footage of Daniel Kinahan marks the first time he has been pictured since the US government levied sanctions on the transnational organised crime group in April 2022.

The Man in the Panama Hat

The Kinahan cartel is one the world’s most notorious criminal organisations. Worth an estimated €1.5 billion, it is involved in drug trafficking, arms smuggling and money laundering operations around the world. Investigators have also linked the gang to Iran’s intelligence services and the Lebanon-based Islamic militant group Hezbollah.

It was reportedly part of a “Super Cartel”, a criminal network that controlled much of Europe’s cocaine trade. Five of the network’s key members have been arrested since 2017, but one — Daniel Kinahan — remains at large.

Daniel Kinahan, who authorities say is responsible for managing the cartel’s vast drug trafficking operations, has been heavily involved in combat sports since the early 2010s. He co-founded MTK Global, a boxing management firm that signed high-profile boxers including former world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.

Kinahan has previously been pictured with boxers and at sporting events, but there have been no confirmed public sightings of him in years. In 2022, after the US sanctions were announced, MTK Global shut down. With multi-million dollar bounties on their heads, the Kinahans fled their luxurious Dubai homes and have kept a low profile since.

After discovering the photo of Daniel Kinahan from the 971 Fighting Championship, Bellingcat searched for additional footage to verify the gangland figure was in the crowd. Multiple videos confirmed he was in attendance, seated in the stadium’s VIP section.

During this process, we also identified a man who strongly resembled his father and the founder of the drugs cartel, Christy Kinahan.

This man and Daniel Kinahan were seated at opposite ends of the front row, immediately around the eight-sided cage, on white sofas designated for VIPs.

We analysed the official footage from the event, a more than six-hour video from sports streaming service TrillerTV. In most of the footage in which the man is visible, his hand partially obscures his face.

However, it was clear that the man shared many of the physical characteristics of Christy Kinahan, including a similar build, facial features, and hair colour and length. The official live-stream, as well as footage posted to social media, showed his appearance was consistent with that of a man in his late sixties.

The man was also wearing a white Panama hat with blue band, a style the cartel leader has been known to wear.

In the image below, posted to social media six months before the 971 FC event, a close relative of Christy Kinahan poses with a Panama hat and wrote in the caption that it belonged to him. Bellingcat has not identified this person because they have no known involvement in crime.

Additionally, the person seated next to the man in the Panama hat throughout the fight night strongly resembled one of Christy Kinahan’s immediate family members. Bellingcat has not identified this person because they have no known involvement in crime.

Two individuals seated behind the man also closely resembled people that Bellingcat and its publishing partner The Sunday Times have linked to the cartel.

It was subsequently confirmed that the man in the Panama hat was Christy Kinahan. The Sunday Times confirmed his identity with three sources who either knew the cartel leader personally or have investigated his activities.

Fight Night, Familiar Faces

Christy Kinahan has served prison time in Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium but has evaded capture for more than a decade. He has received anti-surveillance training to conceal his identity and avoid drawing attention and, in recent years, used aliases to fly under the radar.

But Kinahan is visible throughout the entire live-stream of the 971 Fighting Championship — adding up to the longest known footage of the cartel leader that has ever been made public.

The Sunday Times reports today that his presence at a high profile event that live-streamed online was uncharacteristic for a criminal who has made a career of escaping detection.

“His appearance in the open, seated in such a public place, is all the more remarkable because it is so likely to draw attention, a stark departure for Kinahan, who typically operates like a ghost,” it said.

Bellingcat’s analysis showed that Christy Kinahan was in his seat at the very beginning of the event, when the VIP area was almost entirely empty, and stayed until the end of the last fight, more than six hours later.

He was also seen standing, walking and communicating with other people during the fight night. Kinahan was observed talking to 971 FC founder Mounir Lazzez, who sat next to him during the first round of the Junior Karanta vs Oli Thompson bout. At one point, Lazzez tapped Kinahan on the arm.

Daniel Kinahan appears to have spent less time in the arena, and is first seen in his seat almost four hours into the event. He is captured talking to Lazzez in this photo, taken shortly after Kurdistani fighter Namo Fazil won his bout.

Daniel Kinahan is not seen again after Irish fighter James Gallagher won his bout an hour later, which is when the professional photo of Kinahan and Lazzez was taken.

Tunisian-born Lazzez lived, until recently, in Dubai, where he is listed as a part-owner of a gym called the 971 MMA & Fitness Academy. He launched the 971 Fighting Championship in 2024, promising to “change the face” of combat sports.

Footage from the first 971 FC event, at The Agenda arena in Dubai in May 2024, was not clear enough to identify people in the crowd, but social media posts confirm that an immediate relative of Daniel Kinahan’s was present.

Lazzez has publicly backed Daniel Kinahan despite the global law enforcement efforts to apprehend him. In April 2022, days after the sanctions against the cartel were announced, he thanked Kinahan in a post-fight speech and subsequent media interview in Las Vegas. Lazzez has spoken about their relationship on multiple occasions, including describing Kinahan as a “good friend, brother and advisor”.

Bellingcat contacted Mounir Lazzez by phone, email and social media but did not receive a response.

Bellingcat also identified the people sitting on either side of Daniel Kinahan when the professional photograph was taken. They are a man and a woman who were both involved behind the scenes at 971 FC.

The man, who has previously worked in boxing promotion, had a senior role at the Coca-Cola Arena in June last year, including during the fight night, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The woman, who lists her most recent employment as an MMA event coordinator, appeared in footage posted to 971 FC’s social media that described her as being part of the production team. She is tagged in multiple posts about the event, including from an MMA fighter who participated on the night. The woman is also seen hugging Daniel Kinahan, talking to his adult son and sitting next to Mounir Lazzez.

This means that Kinahan, once a “major player” in the combat sports business, was surrounded by the 971 FC founder and two people who worked at the event. 

The man and woman did not respond to Bellingcat’s questions. There is no suggestion they are involved in any criminal activity.

No clear footage of the younger Kinahan meeting with his father was identified at the 971 FC event. However, during a mid-event performance by American rapper Lloyd Banks, shortly after the professional photo was taken, Daniel Kinahan’s seat was empty and a person wearing similar clothing (light coloured trousers, a dark top and baseball cap) is seen moving along the front row, greeting people, and embracing Christy Kinahan. 

The identity of this person could not be verified due to the low quality of the footage.

The Sunday Times reports today that the Kinahans continue to enjoy a VIP lifestyle in Dubai despite the UAE’s insistence that it has taken action against the cartel. “These findings suggest that the imposition of American sanctions has failed to significantly weaken the cartel and may, in fact, have made it more resilient,” it said.

“The Emiratis claim to have frozen €200 million in assets across UAE-registered businesses and mapped the organisation’s front companies and proxies; however, the Kinahans’ continued ability to operate in the open suggests these enforcement efforts have yet to strike a decisive blow.”

An extradition treaty between Ireland and the UAE was ratified in 2025, but to date it has only been enforced on Kinahan cartel lieutenant Sean McGovern, who was returned on an Irish military plane last May.

In December, Detective Chief Superintendent Séamus Boland, the head of Ireland’s drugs and organised crime bureau, said investigations into the Kinahan cartel were ongoing and that he hoped 2026 would be a “significant year”.

He was speaking ahead of the 10 year anniversary of Dublin’s Regency Hotel attack, when a rival gang attempted to assassinate Daniel Kinahan at a boxing weigh-in. The attack left Kinahan gang member David Byrne dead and sparked a bloody gangland feud that has resulted in 18 deaths.

Bellingcat contacted a representative for the Kinahans to seek comment but did not receive a response.

Correction: This article has been updated after originally stating that Mounir Lazzez “lives” in Dubai. Lazzez lived in Dubai until recently, but moved to Italy in late 2025. The article was updated on March 19, 2026.

Connor Plunkett, Peter Barth, Beau Donelly and John Mooney contributed to this article.

Bellingcat is a non-profit and the ability to carry out our work is dependent on the kind support of individual donors. If you would like to support our work, you can do so here. You can also subscribe to our Patreon channel here. Subscribe to our Newsletter and follow us on Bluesky here, Instagram here, Reddit here and YouTube here. 

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