The brutal truth about shooting that sparked a bloody gangland war - and why gardai fear it could happen again
It was ten years ago this week, on February 5, 2016, that up to 300 boxing fans gathered for a weigh-in at the Regency Hotel in the Whitehall area of north Dublin.
Families with young children had turned out to support young up-and-coming boxers ahead of planned bouts at the National Stadium that weekend.
But as the boxers took it in turn to be weighed, and mums and dads cheered them on, no one noticed a man in a wig, dressed as woman, move silently through the crowd, along with another man wearing a flat cap.
Daniel Kinahan. Pic: File
Neither had any interest in the proceedings for they had only one thing on their mind – murder. Slowly, with handguns by their sides, they wove their way through the throng looking for one man in particular, Daniel Kinahan, one of the world’s wealthiest drug traffickers.
Kinahan was there as an event promoter with innocent boxers who had no involvement in crime – but he had several of his senior criminal associates with him.
Then, at 2.30pm, shots rang out and all hell broke loose. A young boxer who’d been having a weigh-in could be seen diving for cover as families screamed and ran for their lives.
Regency Hotel. Pic: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie
By now three more hitmen, dressed head-to-toe as members of the Garda Emergency Response Unit, had entered the hotel, carrying deadly AK-47 assault rifles.
Mayhem ensued as the gang searched for Kinahan, but he was spirited away to safety out a back door. One of the gunmen could be heard shouting ‘I can’t f***in’ find him’ as they realised their quarry had fled.
Cheers for the boxers from the crowd were quickly replaced by blood-curdling screams as armed men sought out more targets.
David Byrne. Pic: Facebook
Videos from the chilling event showed people diving for cover while a little girl cried as she was ushered away from the violence by her father.
For the minutes they were inside the hotel, the Hutch gang failed to get their man – Kinahan had escaped.
But as the dust settled, a senior member of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group (KOCG) lay dead in the lobby.
Gary Hutch. Pic: Marc O’Sullivan/Collins
David Byrne’s crumpled and lifeless body lay on the marble floor with blood streaming from his head. He was 33 and a right-hand man of Daniel Kinahan.
Byrne, in charge of all drug operations in Ireland for Kinahan, had tried to run but was cut down and shot dead in the lobby of the hotel. A gunman stood over him, shooting him six times. Another alleged Kinahan crony, Seán McGovern, was shot in the leg.
It was the most infamous gangland attack in the history of organised crime in Ireland – and was to lead to a deadly feud that saw a total of 18 men murdered in a bloody rampage.
Daniel Kinahan. Pic: File
As Daniel Kinahan directed revenge attacks that shocked the country, it can be revealed that gardaí have him firmly in their sights and plan to extradite him from his bolthole in Dubai for drug trafficking and murder.
A senior source said: ‘Daniel Kinahan was the main target for the Hutch gang that day – but he escaped by the skin of his teeth and directed what was basically a war on anyone the Kinahans thought were connected to the Hutches.
‘He will be brought to justice for the appalling killings that followed. Final touches are being put to a file before it goes to the DPP – and then we’ll aim to extradite him back here from the United Arab Emirates.’
Although gardaí have jailed 98 criminals for various offences linked to the bloody feud that engulfed gangland, none of the six hitmen – five armed men and a driver – was convicted of the killing. Nor were the organisers.
On Wednesday, on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the bloodbath, a top garda warned that another Regency-style shooting between the rival Kinahan and Hutch gangs could happen in future, as ‘we’re not dealing with rational people’.
Officers, however, vowed not to become complacent in their fight against organised crime and an audacious attack like that at the Regency is ‘a matter we must always be conscious of’, Detective Chief Superintendent Séamus Boland of the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau said this week.
He said:’This extreme and violent attack was the catalyst to accelerate a vengeful and merciless campaign of violence between the Kinahan Organised Crime Group and the Hutch Organised Crime Group, both of which held the primary position in violent organised crime in Ireland for many decades.
‘Eighteen persons were murdered as part of this feud and multiple other viable threat-tolife attempts were planned,’ Det Chief Supt Boland said.
Asked about some of those who were convicted in connection with the attack and the ensuing feud, Det Chief Supt Boland warned that those who have already served their time rarely go back to civilian life.
‘There’s always a risk that any person who has achieved a very high level of organised crime that they’re going to continue engaging in organised crime.
‘The importance for us is not to become complacent.
‘The information that we have and the analysis that we conduct in this field identifies the main groups and the controlling entities and those groups that are affecting this jurisdiction.
‘Our investigations will continue to be focused on all of those people in relation to the potential for feud activity to continue. That’s a matter we must always be conscious of.
‘We’re not dealing with reasonable or rational people on any side.
‘Thankfully, there have been no attacks or no murders in a considerable time. But again, we need to not be complacent.
‘Nobody can be trusted on their word in relation to these issues. There is nobody who can actually say what has happened because of this feud, and with so many murders and so many attacks that have actually taken place, there’s always a danger that this could happen again. So, our investigations will always continue. Our investigations are intelligence-led and information-led at all times’ Det Chief Super Boland also said it is not a failure of policing that no one has been convicted of the murder of David Byrne He also referred to the shooting as ‘the worst organised crimerelated attack in the history of the State’.
Five months before the Regency attack, there had been another murder, the gruesome gun death that would set in train the plot to kill Daniel Kinahan, 48, and his gang at the north Dublin hotel.
The nephew of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch, Gary Hutch, 34, was shot dead after going for a morning run in Estepona on Spain’s Costa Del Sol on September 24, 2015.
At this time, the Hutches and Kinahans were working together in their drug trafficking enterprises.
To all intents and purposes, they were allies, friends and many had partners from each side.
Gary Hutch was part of Daniel Kinahan’s inner circle at the time. But, according to security sources, Hutch wanted a bigger slice of the action and had plotted to have Kinahan killed and to take control of the gang.
The attempt ended in failure, resulting in innocent boxer Jamie Moore being shot in the leg. There is no suggestion Mr Moore was in any way involved in crime but he was wrongly targeted in the 2014 botched hit.
Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch, 62, was drafted in to act as a mediator as both groups attempted to settle their differences. Money was exchanged for a promise that Gary’s life would be spared.
But he was killed a year later. Det Chief Supt Boland promised those involved in the feud that they ‘haven’t got away with this’ as he described how feelings can change over the years and that many people who would have been on one side of the feud have drifted to the other.
He explained: ‘Over the course of ten years, loyalties can also change, particularly when what we’re actually talking about here is, rather than two totally independent organised crime groups, we’re talking about one group and people who are very, very well associated with each other, who were all working significantly in the drug trafficking environment.
‘[The feud] originated from a control for power and supremacy within the group itself, which is normal when you’re dealing with people who are motivated by greed and power.
‘But loyalties do change and a lot of families and a lot of people were hurt in this and criminals can feel grief and can feel emotions as well in relation to these issues, you know, with the passage of time, and where people have seen the capabilities of the criminal justice system in this country that we can bring high level people to justice.’
The top priority for gardaí is to get Daniel Kinahan, his father Christy, 69, and Daniel’s brother, Christy Jr, 45, back to Ireland to face justice for their crimes. They are currently lying low in Dubai. The US Drug Enforcement Agency has placed $5million bounties on each of their heads.
But the top garda would not be drawn into talking about individuals.
Alleged high-ranking KOCG member Seán McGovern, 39, was last year extradited to Ireland from the United Arab Emirates. He was charged with the murder of Noel ‘Duck Egg’ Kirwan, along with several other gangland offences, and has since appeared before the non-jury Special Criminal Court.
The extradition treaty between Ireland and the UAE represented a seismic shift in co-operation between the two nations. Dubai had become a haven for some of the world’s most dangerous criminal gang leaders.
Daniel Kinahan continued to enjoy the fruits of the bloodshed he ordered, the drugs he trafficked and the lives he destroyed.
But the net continues to tighten on the KOCG, which gardaí say is now a shell of its former self.
‘The Kinahan Organised Crime Gang no longer exists today as it did in 2016 when it was at its height of power. The impact of the KOCG on this jurisdiction of Ireland is very, very much reduced, whereby they are no longer the primary group that is the focus of our national investigations,’ Det Chief Supt Boland said.
The top spot has since been taken over by a west Dublin group known as The Family, sources said.
‘Our work is not complete, because it’s very important, and I’ve said it on a number of occasions, that we can not be complacent, that when significant criminal gangs appear to go quiet, it’s always important that we do not sit back and focus all our resources in another direction, because our experience is that they will always come to the fore again.
‘You know what we have seen throughout the years, that when people achieve very significant ranks in organised crime, they do not retire, they do not move away from organised crime.
They may become less visible, but they will always still be controlling what’s happening from the background. So that group does not exist in any format like it did previously, and our investigations are still focused on finalising the complete and utter dismantling of the KOCG.’
The investigation into the murder of David Byrne was led from the North Dublin Garda Division under the direction of the late Detective Superintendent Colm Fox.
In relation to the actual killing, a total of 17 people have been arrested to date, and this investigation has resulted in the conviction of four men in connection with the murder and a fifth man sentenced for firearmsrelated matters.
In April 2023, Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch was found not guilty of the murder of David Byrne.
The actual hit team of six gunmen who carried out the brazen Regency murder have not been convicted, nor have those who organised it.
In a statement, gardaí said their response to this ‘depraved attack and subsequent events has been resourced, resourceful and relentless’. The force said its work has resulted in stopping 51 potentially fatal attacks, the seizure of 70 guns, the seizure of €31.8 million worth of drugs and €11.1 million in cash being confiscated.
Gardaí said their work has secured the convictions of 98 associates linked to the Hutch and Kinahan organised crime groups, bringing a significant haul of successful prosecutions before the courts.
The cases span some of the most serious offences on the statute book, including 19 linked to murder and another 25 relating to attempted murder, along with 21 firearms offences, 22 drug trafficking cases and 21 convictions for money laundering. Of those convicted, 15 were associated with the Hutch Organised Crime Group, while the vast majority, 83 individuals, were linked to the Kinahan gang.
Gardaí have confirmed that the legal process is far from over, with additional files currently under consideration by the Director of Public Prosecutions and several cases already making their way through the courts.
Det Chief Supt Boland’s message was clear: there are people out there who have information that will lead to the conviction of those responsible for the ‘reprehensible’ acts of that day ten years ago.
‘This attack in the Regency Hotel is the worst organised crime-related attack in the history of this State. It’s also the greatest failure by the people who planned it and carried it out, because it did not achieve anything except increasing the numbers of people who were eventually killed.
‘The important thing that defines this is the number of innocent people who were eventually killed, because it almost became killing for the sake of killing, you know, so it’s important that we continue all of our investigations,’ he said.
