This article is the result of a collaboration with The Sunday Times. You can find their corresponding piece here .
Mounir Lazzez, a former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) athlete, sitting with Daniel Kinahan (left) and pictured in front of Christy Kinahan (right). Exposure and brightness have been increased in the second screenshot. Source: WeCaptureYou
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.
Top Left: Lazzez taps Christy Kinahan’s arm. Top Right: Lazzez talks to Daniel Kinahan . Bottom: Lazzez crouches in front of Christy Kinahan. Exposure and brightness have been increased. Source: TrillerTV , shirinbayd / Instagram
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.
Instagram posts from 2021 and 2022 in which Lazzez thanks Daniel Kinahan for his support. The Kinahan cartel, worth an estimated €1.5 billion, smuggles vast quantities of cocaine to Europe. Source: mounirlazzez / Instagram
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.
Lazzez, who was represented by Daniel Kinahan’s company MTK Global — which shut down in the wake of the US sanctions — wearing MTK-branded clothing at a UAE Warriors event in Abu Dhabi. Source: UFC
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”.
Instagram posts from 2018, 2020 and 2021 showing Lazzez wearing MTK-branded clothing. Source: mounirlazzez / Instagram
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.
British MMA fighter Muhammad Mokaev with Mounir Lazzez, holding the prize money from the 971 Fighting Championship, in June 2025. Source: muhammadmokaev / X
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 .
Wanted posters for Irish crime boss Christy Kinahan, 68, and his two sons, Daniel, 48, and Christopher Jr, 45, who fled to Dubai in 2016. The US treasury department has called the Kinahan cartel a “murderous organisation”. Source: US Department of the Treasury
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.
Lazzez, pictured on Facebook, at a gym he is now associated with in Italy. The Facebook account was deleted after enquires from Bellingcat. Source: MLMMA Fitness / Facebook
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.
“We want to be constants in the market,” Lazzez said of the 971 FC during last year’s event. “One hundred per cent this year we’re going to do a couple of them, not just only one.”
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.
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.
Lazzez has lived in Dubai since about 2011, media reports say, and became an Italian citizen in 2022, according to his own social media (left). His passport number (pixelated by Bellingcat) was used on the licence for his Dubai gym (right). Source: mounirlazzez / Instagram, Government of Dubai
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.
Corporate records for Dragon Road Limited and Faith Enterprise Limited. Source: International Registries, Inc.
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.
The Irish Army Ranger Wing boarding MV Matthew, the Panamanian-flagged bulk cargo vessel, south of Cork in September 2023. Source: Irish Air Corps
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.
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