Murdered hitman Hamid Sanambar flew back and forth to Spain to meet the Kinahan cartel before his death, Dublin Live can reveal.
The 41-year-old assassin, suspected of the killings of Jordan Davis and his pal Sean Little within 24 hours of each other, had a string of convictions dating back to 2007.
The Iranian national was arrested in southern Spain four-and-a-half years ago with Daniel Kinahan, son of mob boss Christy Kinahan, while Sanambar was on the run from gardai.
He also had close links to an Irish drug trafficker and gunrunner who is believed to have relocated from Spain to Dubai with the Kinahan mob.
Sanambar was out on bail on a robbery charge when he was shot in the head during a wake for Sean Little at his North Dublin home on Tuesday.
The tattooed thug had repeatedly come to the attention of gardai and was the chief suspect for a number of gangland shootings over the past 18 months.
Questions are now being asked about the Iranian hood’s asylum status and why it was not revoked despite his involvement in a number of violent crimes.
A source said: “As an asylum seeker this man filled out all the necessary application forms and went through all the proper channels.
“He was granted political asylum on the basis that his was a genuine case.
“But it should have been revoked because he fell foul of the law so many times.”
Hired muscle Sanambar was first convicted in November 2007 for road traffic offences – while living in a hostel for asylum seekers in Cork city.
He was given a suspended sentence for a public order incident in 2009 in which he resisted arrest and wrestled with gardai.
In September 2012 he robbed a brothel in Cork, stealing thousands of euros in cash from two women, and later fled to Spain to evade capture.
The source said: “Because he had political asylum he was able to go over and back to Spain to the Kinahans as often as he liked.
“But he had convictions going back over a dozen years and he was definitely on the radar with gardai as somebody to keep an eye on.”
