Case against Daniel Kinahan to include attempted Gerry Hutch killing and feud murders
The attempted murder of veteran criminal and upcoming byelection candidate Gerry Hutch (59) is one of the conspiracies in which the State will allege cartel leader Daniel Kinahan (48) was involved, when he goes on trial.The Irish Times has learned that evidence will be presented in court relating to at least two murders, and two attempted killings, linked to the Kinahan-Hutch feud. Kinahan will go on trial before the Special Criminal Court, assuming he is extradited from Dubai following his arrest there last Friday.The murder of Gerry Hutch’s brother, Eddie Hutch (59), in February 2016, will also feature during the evidence against Kinahan, as will the shooting dead of Noel Kirwan (62) in west Dublin in December of that year. An attempt to kill James “Mago” Gately, a close associate of the Hutches and one-time Kinahan cartel member alongside Gary Hutch, will also form part of the evidence against Kinahan.READ MORE‘It doesn’t make sense’: Seasoned drivers treated like learners due to Ireland’s licence rulesIreland at risk of ‘lone wolf’ attacks and Islamist terrorism, new security review warnsBillionaire children of Silvio Berlusconi set for Dublin High Court proceedings with Central BankRestaurant review: This Dublin spot is a rare combination of good food and serious wine at remarkable valueLast Friday married father-of-five Kinahan was arrested by Dubai police less than 48 hours after a warrant for his arrest was issued by the High Court in Dublin. That warrant was presented to the authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who executed it as the first part of Ireland’s attempt to extradite Kinahan.The issuing of the warrant last Wednesday, and the arrest of Kinahan last Friday, were made possible after the DPP directed Kinahan should face trial for allegedly directing a criminal organisation. Once that charge was approved, the effort to extradite Kinahan, who has lived in Dubai for a decade, could formally begin.Gardaí have seized a number of phones, including two in 2017, from which significant evidence has now been harvested using the latest cyber investigation techniques and spyware. The State will allege messages found on those phones, directing people involved in feud-related murder conspiracies, were authored by Kinahan.The messages on those devices – Blackberries with PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) encryption – have been accessed, even though the cartel believed they had remotely wiped all content from the phones after they were seized. The State will allege Kinahan was the author of some of the messages sent to men in the pay of the cartel.[ Cartel leader Daniel Kinahan arrested in Dubai following covert police operationOpens in new window ]In each case the State will allege Kinahan assumed the role of gang director as the killings and attempted killings were being planned.Gerry Hutch narrowly escaped being murdered in Lanzarote on New Year’s Eve 2015, when two gunmen walked into the pub he was in. Hutch – named in Garda evidence as the leader of the Hutch gang – spotted the two men as they entered the pub and managed to hide behind a pillar.That effort to kill him, by Dublin gunmen dispatched to Lanzarote by the Kinahan cartel, came just three months after the cartel had shot dead his nephew, Gary Hutch, in Spain. In February 2016, when the Hutch gang tried to kill Kinahan at the Regency Hotel in Dublin, that attack was seen as revenge for the murder of Gary Hutch and the attempt to kill Gerry Hutch.Eddie Hutch was shot dead outside his home in Dublin’s north inner city just days after the Regency Hotel attack, which Kinahan escaped uninjured but which left his associate, David Byrne, dead and a second Kinahan ally, Sean McGovern, wounded.[ Regency attack: 10 years on, why were no Hutch gang members arrested after gun seizures?Opens in new window ]In December 2016, when Noel Kirwan was gunned down outside his home in Clondalkin, Dublin, it later emerged he was killed in revenge for attending Eddie Hutch’s funeral 10 months earlier. Kirwan was photographed by the media with Gerry Hutch at that funeral.In spring 2017 the Kinahan cartel flew Estonian hitman Imre Arakas into Ireland to kill Gately, who the Kinahans wanted dead as he was close to Gary Hutch and whom the cartel became convinced was involved in the Regency attack. However, Arakas was under Garda surveillance from the time he arrived in Dublin and was arrested by gardaí before he had a chance to shoot Gately, who had fled to Northern Ireland.
