British twins Jamie and Aaron Small have been identified as the targets of an alleged murder plot in Cyprus, according to the Liverpool Echo.
The brothers, who are British nationals, were reportedly on holiday in the Famagusta district this summer. British authorities believe the two men have since left Cyprus, while their family told the Liverpool Echo that they have been missing for around two months.
An international manhunt involving Interpol, Merseyside Police and the Cyprus Police is reportedly under way to locate them.
Alleged Kinahan cartel links
The identification of the twins comes alongside revelations from an international journalistic investigation involving the Irish Times, the Cyprus Investigative Journalism Network (CIREN), Norway’s VG and Sweden’s SVT.
According to the investigation, Irish officials believe veteran criminals with direct links to the Kinahan cartel ordered the alleged murder plot.
The Kinahan organisation is considered one of Europe’s major cocaine trafficking groups. Several of its senior figures are in prison or wanted internationally.
The investigation reported that the organisation has increasingly worked with smaller criminal networks, including Ireland’s McCarthy-Dundon group and Sweden’s Foxtrot network, as authorities have targeted its leadership.
Undercover operation
According to the investigation, the operation to identify and arrest suspects began on August 10, when an account using the alias “Sponge Jobb” posted an advertisement on the encrypted messaging app Signal seeking a contract killer for an operation inside the European Union.
The advertised payment was €85,000.
The advertisement was reportedly discovered by a Danish police officer working undercover as part of a wider European investigation. The officer posed as a hitman and made contact with the recruiter.
He arrived in Cyprus on August 24 and was placed under close surveillance by a special investigative team of the Cyprus Police and Europol.
Through Signal, he was reportedly sent photographs of the Small brothers and instructions to collect an advance payment from several locations in Ayia Napa.
Arrests and evidence
The investigation reported that surveillance led authorities to a 33-year-old Irish national with family links to the McCarthy-Dundon gang, who allegedly collected the money from the designated locations.
Authorities reportedly found a video featuring a handgun on the Irish suspect’s phone. On the phone of one of the Norwegian suspects, they allegedly found audiovisual material showing a masked man torturing another man, as well as another man tied to a chair with tape over his mouth.
On August 27, police arrested the 33-year-old Irishman and two Norwegian nationals with serious criminal records.
That same day, following an urgent alert from Swedish authorities about the arrival of a suspected hitman from Stockholm, police placed five more Swedish nationals under surveillance and arrested them. A handgun, medical masks and disposable gloves were reportedly found in their possession.
Eight people remain in custody in Cyprus and face serious charges including conspiracy to commit murder and participation in a criminal organisation.
All the suspects deny the allegations and claim they were in Cyprus on holiday.
The motive for allegedly targeting the Small brothers remains unknown.
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