Tyson Fury was videoed with Robert Kelbie, who has alleged ties to Daniel Kinahan.
Tyson Fury was caught on camera recently trying to catch a cab in the south of France. In the video Fury can be seen stumbling before having a discussion with the cabbie. The driver seems to be telling Fury and his entourage that he isn’t interested in taking them as a fare.
The driver then pulls away, which causes Fury to advance on the vehicle and kick it in the bumper, while his friends try to control him. Fury’s seemingly boozed up behaviour isn’t what’s making waves, though. It’s who he is captured with in this video that is of greater concern.
According to Sunday World, one of the men in the video is Robert Kelbie. That outlet claims that the 38-year-old Scottish national is an alleged gangster with ties to infamous mob boss Daniel Kinahan.
The Scottish Sun claims that Kelbie has links to the notorious Lyons clan crime group, which is alleged to be affiliated with the Kinahan Organized Crime Group. Kelbie also has links to the now defunct MTK Global, a boxing company that represented Fury and which closed down after the US government sanctioned Kinahan.
Kinahan has been named by Irish courts and the US government as the de facto leader of the KOCG, a billion dollar cocaine smuggling outfit that is believed to be responsible for a number of murders across Ireland and Spain.
Kinahan founded the company that would become MTK Global, but both sides claimed he ended his involvement with the company after the 2016 Regency Hotel shooting in Dublin. That shooting, which targeted an MTK boxing weigh-in show, was believed to be a failed assassination attempt against Kinahan. Kinahan moved to Dubai shortly after.
Since that incident MTK developed into one of the most powerful companies in boxing, representing Fury, Billy Joe Saunders, Carl Frampton and many other top boxers. MTK also inked deals with Top Rank and ESPN+. MTK’s MMA division managed Darren Till (a self-confessed close friend to Kinahan), Aleksandar Rakic, Taila Santos, Dusko Todorvic and many other fighters.
Despite MTK’s claims that Kinahan was not involved with the company, Fury continued to be pictured with Kinahan. In 2020 Fury publicly thanked Kinahan for negotiating his deals to fight Anthony Joshua. It was then revealed that Kinahan had been personally involved in a number of Fury’s past fight deals.
After the US sanctioned Kinahan, and placed a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest, Fury has avoided questions regarding his association with the now wanted suspected mob boss.
In the lead up to his fight with Dillian Whyte in April, Fury gave a bizarre interview where he stated the sanctions against Kinahan, someone he was hanging out with a few months prior, were not his concern.
Many individuals with connections to Kinahan have faced sanctions, which include travel bans to the US. Despite his long association with Kinahan, Fury has not been hit with any kind of penalty.