Gerry Hutch’s assets: On the trail of a gang leader turned politician
Gerry Hutch was driving to his home on the island of Lanzarote two weeks ago when he heard that his rival Daniel Kinahan had been arrested in Dubai.His phone started buzzing with the news at about 5.45pm and did not stop for the next several hours. Soon word had spread across Puerto del Carmen, the beachfront tourist town on the Canary island where Hutch lives most of the year, far from Dublin’s north inner city where the 63-year-old grew up.Associates gathered that night in Paddy’s Point, one of Hutch’s favourite bars, and celebrated into the small hours, according to two people who were there. For Hutch, the veteran criminal known as The Monk, it was a double celebration; he was also marking the third anniversary of his release from prison after the Special Criminal Court found him not guilty of the murder of David Byrne, the Kinahan gang member shot dead at the Regency Hotel in north Dublin in February 2016. Up to 16 more people would be murdered in the subsequent violence between the Kinahan and Hutch gangs in the following two years.READ MOREMan in custody as gardaí search for firearm discharged by child in BallymunPlanning institute influenced EY report findings, executive claims at Irish Examiner libel trialMan (39) remanded in custody charged with murder of Yveta Donovalova in Co WaterfordFree Legal Advice Centres welcome President’s ‘timely’ comments on ‘unmet legal needs’ Paddy's Point in Lanzarote, which Gerry Hutch frequents. All photographs: Enda O'Dowd Though Hutch was acquitted, the Special Criminal Court said the evidence showed he was leader of the Hutch organised crime group and, at one point, was in control of the assault rifles used in the attack.Hutch continues to face various legal issues, including criminal investigations in Spain and Ireland, and a large tax demand from the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab). Earlier this month his son Jason Jamie Murphy was arrested by Spanish police at the request of An Garda.[ Investigation: Spanish authorities freeze Gerry Hutch’s property assets as part of money-laundering investigationOpens in new window ]Murphy, formerly Jason Hutch (he changed his name by deed poll several years ago), was pulled out of his van by armed officers while travelling to work in Lanzarote on a Thursday morning. He was taken to Tahiche Prison, a sprawling complex a 10-minute drive north of the capital, Arrecife, where he awaits extradition to Ireland. The prison in Tahiche in Lanzarote where Gerry Hutch's son is being held The 37-year-old faces charges of running the Hutch gang’s intelligence operations and handling its relationships with corrupt gardaí. A number of serving gardaí have also been arrested in Ireland as part of the same investigation.“The only time Jason has been in a police station was to get a passport signed,” Gerry Hutch said last week. The arrest, he said, was “an election stunt” designed to interfere with next month’s byelection in Dublin Central. The elder Hutch intends to run in the constituency he hails from, having narrowly missed out on a seat in the same area in the 2024 general election.Ireland is in the midst of a worsening housing crisis, putting an increased focus on members of the Dáil involved in property. According to the Dáil register of interests, about one in five TDs make some income from property interests.If elected in the May 22nd byelection, Hutch would join that group. It has long been reported that the Dublin man made millions from property investments over the years, with the seed money allegedly coming from audacious bank heists, including the Marino Mart robbery in 1987 and the Brinks Allied robbery in 1995.Last week, as part of an investigation into Hutch’s property interests, The Irish Times visited various locations that, according to Spanish company and property records, were linked to Hutch.Hutch is linked to three properties in LanzaroteProperties owned or associated with Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch in Lanzarote.Source: The Irish Times Investigations Unit These included two addresses on Lanzarote previously listed as the headquarters of his property company. No one answered the door at the first address, a unit in a deserted apartment complex near the airport. It was a similar story at another registered business address near the seafront in Puerto del Carmen. The small house had previously been registered as Hutch’s business headquarters but property records show it is owned by a local salon.A property associated with Gerry Hutch in Lanzarote Hutch is a regular at dozens of Irish bars in the town. There is Paddy’s Point, where he sometimes sings karaoke, and the Drunken Monkey where, according to photos uploaded to social media by tourists, he occasionally enjoys a pint in the outside bar.There is Mulligans in the new town, where he had his 50th birthday, and Mulligans in the old town where two Kinahan hitmen tried to assassinate him on New Year’s Eve 2015, one month before the Regency attack.[ Attempted murder of Gerry Hutch to be included in case against Daniel KinahanOpens in new window ]In Mulligans in the old town, an otherwise friendly bar-woman from Galway declines to discuss Hutch. “I like to get on with people; I don’t talk about those things,” she says.Bar staff in other pubs are more willing to chat. Mulligan II in Puerto del Carmen, where Gerry Hutch celebrated his 50th birthday Mulligans in Puerto del Carmen, where an attempt was made on Gerry Hutch's life on New Year's Eve 2015 “He’s the nicest customer who comes in here. He’s incredibly smart. He speaks eight languages,” says one (Hutch later discloses he is not even proficient in Spanish: “I’m around English-speaking people all the time.”)In Paddy’s Point, another man describes Hutch as a tourist attraction in his own right. Irish visitors rush to get selfies and autographs from the man whenever he is spotted. Even gardaí on holiday exchange the odd friendly word. The barman adds Hutch usually drops in Monday evenings, “but he has a lot going on right now with the young fella” – a reference to his son.Does he think Hutch will win next month? “I f**king hope he does,” says the barman.There is no sign of Hutch that Monday night. We later learn he was around the corner eating in a Chinese restaurant.The next morning, we travel to Hutch’s primary residence on the island, a spacious though not extravagant villa a few minutes’ walk from the strip. It is described in official records as a three-bed, two bathroom “family dwelling” on a 147sq m plot with exclusive access to a 424sq m private garden. Google Maps shows it has a small pool and nearby properties of similar size can be rented for about €1,800 a week.You’d always be on your guard but that’s something that’s in you from being a kidHutch purchased the property with his wife, Patricia, in 2017, at the height of the Hutch-Kinahan feud, after obtaining a mortgage for €264,000, according to official Spanish property records. It is almost certainly worth much more now; property prices on the island have increased sharply in recent years.As we cross the road to the front door of the property, a man appears at the top of the road. It is Hutch. He is slightly red-faced and dressed in a singlet and shorts. He is carrying two hiking sticks and an empty water bottle clinks by his side.Hutch points to the mountains in the distance, explaining he is returning from a four-hour hike. The Irish Times asks for an interview.“Give us a few minutes to get changed and we’ll get a cup of tea. Sit there on that wall and wait for me. The Wall of Jericho, what?”Emerging a short time later in a white shirt and denim shorts, Hutch gets into the back of the car and directs us to a nearby cafe. For a man under criminal investigation in two countries and previously targeted in multiple assassination attempts by an international drugs cartel, Hutch is surprisingly easy to track down. His house is surrounded by high walls but has little other obvious protection measures in place. In the cafe, he sits with his back to the entrance. However, he still occasionally looks over his shoulder, he says. “You’d always be on your guard but that’s something that’s in you from being a kid,” he says.Over lunch Hutch confirms his plans to run in next month’s byelection, although he does not sound overly confident. “This is a different type of election altogether. It’s much tougher,” he says. “But there is a massive Sinn Féin vote there and some of that will be coming to me as an anti-establishment person.”The recent fuel protests and the spoiled-votes campaign in the presidential election will help him, he says, adding that he would one day like to be able to run for the presidency.Asked about his priorities, he talks about the cost of living, homelessness and increasing representation of people from minority groups such as the Travelling community. His answers become vague when he is pressed for detail. “I’ll be concentrating on doing what people want me to do when I get in there,” he says, without offering any specifics. He is not planning to publish a manifesto. He initially describes himself as anti-establishment but later distances himself from this characterisation, saying he is “far from it”. Hutch frequently praises the late Dublin inner-city TD Tony Gregory and former taoiseach Bertie Ahern.Hutch says he will move home permanently to Dublin if elected, only coming back to Lanzarote for two weeks at Christmas. Puerto Del Carmen in Lanzarote, where Dublin Central candidate Gerry Hutch has been living in for 12 years. If elected to the Dáil, he says he will support the Government if he agrees with its position on particular policies and will be quick to praise rival politicians if they do the right thing.Would he find the daily work of being a TD boring? “If I got elected, I would be willing to take the boring. It can’t be more boring than sitting in a prison cell for two years,” he says.Part of Hutch’s reason for running is to change the narrative surrounding him, so that his grandchildren will hear him described as a politician rather than a gangster. “It’d be nice to finish up being a TD,” he says.Gerry Hutch in Lanzarote: 'You’d always be on your guard but that’s something that’s in you from being a kid.' He denies that living almost full time in Lanzarote means he is out of touch with the problems on the ground in inner-city Dublin. “I’m not involved in them because I’m not elected,” he says. “I have no business going to meetings. I let the councillors and the TDs deal with it. If I’m elected, I’ll be doing that.”He acknowledges his “chequered past” but says over the years “bombers, gun smugglers and armed robbers” have sat in the Dáil. “It’s great. That’s what we need in the Dáil,” he says. “We need change. We need a man in there who can talk to the man on the street.”Contrary to some speculation, winning election to the Dáil will not grant Hutch any immunity from future prosecution. Under Irish law, gardaí cannot arrest a TD while they are on their way to Dáil business. But they can be arrested and charged at any other time. As Hutch alludes to, sitting TDs have been prosecuted over the years, including Charles Haughey, who, in 1971, was charged with gun-running while he was minister for finance.Hutch is keen to talk politics but less forthcoming when asked about his property holdings. In 1999 an officer from the newly formed Criminal Assets Bureau told the High Court that Hutch hid his assets in offshore accounts and by placing them in the name of family members. The Cab won its case and Hutch was forced to pay almost £2 million that was judged to be the proceeds of crime.Today, is it equally difficult to determine the extent of his holdings. A trawl of official Irish property records suggests the only property currently in his name in Ireland is the family home in Clontarf on the northside of Dublin, a detached four-bed house near the seafront that Hutch purchased with his wife in 1994. Last year the house next door went on the market for more than €1 million. Hutch has been linked to at least nine properties in Dublin cityProperties owned or associated with Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch in Dublin. Aside from his family home, records do not show any ongoing link to the other residential properties.Sources: The Irish Times Investigations Unit, Criminal Assets Bureau However, a paper trail shows he has owned other properties, according to judgments secured by the Cab when it pursued him in the late 1990s. Property records show the bureau obtained judgments against five properties in Dublin’s north inner city, including a row of four houses on Lower Buckingham Street, near Connolly Station. This street is long considered a stronghold of the Hutch organised crime group.Hutch’s home area of Buckingham St became a focus for his investmentsProperties previously owned or associated with Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch in inner city Dublin. Records do not show any ongoing link to the residential properties.The houses include numbers 23 and 24, which were previously in the name of Hutch’s mother before they were sold to Dublin City Council in 2000. They are now rented to children’s charity Barnardos, which uses it as a bereavement support centre.The Cab also pursued number 25, which, records show, was formerly in the name of Hutch’s sister, and number 26, which was searched by gardaí investigating the Regency shooting. Hutch no longer has any connection with either property.Before his acquittal in the Regency murder case, Hutch was alleged to have used properties on Buckingham Street as a staging area for the attack, including the Buckingham Village flat complex on the same street.He was an early investor in the now almost derelict Buckingham Village complex in the early 1990s, when it was developed by builder and gangland figure Paddy Shanahan, who was murdered in 1994. Hutch now says he has nothing to do with the apartment complex. The Cab previously stated Hutch also invested heavily, in his wife’s name, in the construction of Drury Hall, an apartment complex on Stephen’s Street near Grafton Street.Officers from the bureau also pursued a four-bedroom property in Shankill, south Co Dublin, now worth about €500,000, which records show was never in Hutch’s name. Hutch says he also rents out a gym in the north inner city to Corinthians Boxing Club for a nominal amount, though property records do not list him as the owner.In Spain, in addition to the villa he owns with his wife, Hutch owns a 135sq m penthouse apartment in Fuengirola on the Spanish mainland, according to records obtained by The Irish Times. He purchased it for €263,000 in 2020, shortly before he went on the run while being pursued by police for the Regency attack. He also purchased a nearby parking spot, the records show. A similar apartment in the same building can be rented for €2,300 a week.It is often reported Hutch has further properties in the UK, Turkey, Hungary and Bulgaria. Those countries operate closed property registries, meaning there is no way to determine how many holdings a particular person owns without knowing the exact addresses.Is Hutch still involved in the property business? “Not really. It was a long time ago,” he says in a Lanzarote restaurant.The extent of his holdings has been “exaggerated”, he says, adding that he will declare all his properties if he is elected. Gerry Hutch’s life in LanzarotePicking up a napkin, he says: “They’d fit on to that. It won’t be an A4 sheet.”He declines to detail the full extent of his property holdings now. “No, no. I think that’s private. If I’m elected, it’s not private,” he says.Despite refusing to share the details, he speculates that, if elected, he might be the richest TD in the Dáil, a title currently thought to be held by Kerry Independent Michael Healy-Rae, who owns rental housing and guest house properties worth an estimated €5.6 million.“I’d be happy to be wealthiest TD. I don’t know. I’d have to have a talk with the Healy-Raes. We’ll open our piggy banks and see what’s in them,” he says.One possible reason for Hutch’s reticence to disclose his holdings can be found in the Spanish property records. The three properties listed in his own name in the country are subject to court orders imposed after the start of the money laundering investigation in 2024. These “preventative seizure” orders effectively freeze the properties, meaning they cannot be sold until the conclusion of the case against Hutch. Despite the recent arrest of his son, Hutch seems unconcerned by the ongoing criminal case against him in Ireland. A file prepared by gardaí, which is being considered by the Director of Public Prosecutions, accuses Hutch of directing a criminal organisation – the same offence Kinahan is likely to be charged with if he is extradited back from Dubai. The offence carries a maximum sentence of life on conviction.Hutch says he is unfazed by the ongoing money laundering investigation by the Spanish authorities. In October 2024, shortly before the general election in Ireland, Hutch was one of nine people arrested in Spain by the Guardia Civil. He was later released on €100,000 bail.“I’m confident that in the investigation over here, I’ll be exonerated when the time comes. I’m not too concerned,” he says.According to Spanish legal sources, the investigation is focusing on an alleged fraud scheme targeting the pensions of UK tourists. Hutch is accused of providing money-laundering services to the fraudsters, a claim he denies.The investigation into Hutch arose, in part, out of financial documents seized from his house in Ireland while he was in prison in 2021 awaiting the Regency trial. Gardaí sent these documents to their Spanish counterparts, alleging they showed money laundering. It is understood the documents are also the basis for an outstanding €800,000 tax demand by the Cab.Hutch has some reason to be confident about the Spanish case. His bail money was recently returned to him, and Spanish investigators have asked the court for more time to gather evidence. Both are indications that the case may not be strong enough to proceed to a full trial, according to sources in Lanzarote, including a legal expert. “I just let my solicitor deal with it,” says Hutch.The volcanic landscape of Lanzarote Hutch’s house in Lanzarote is surrounded by volcanoes on three sides. The island is known as “the land of volcanoes”. Most days, he spends hours walking this desolate wilderness made up of extinct calderas and vast fields of shattered basalt, the result of previous volcanic eruptions. The Martian-like landscape looks ancient but much of it was formed in eruptions as recently as the early 1800s. “There’s trails everywhere,” he says. “It’s brilliant.” [ Revealed: How Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch got his nickname and the connection to The Irish TimesOpens in new window ]From some points on the trails, the prison where his son is held is just visible in the distance.There is no shelter from the sun out here, and hikers occasionally require rescue after suffering heat exhaustion. “The heat doesn’t bother me,” says Hutch, as he brings The Irish Times to a picturesque church in the foothills, a location he suggests for a photograph and on-camera interview. “I’ve had heat on me all my life.”Aside from the occasional swim, he does not have many other hobbies. The two golf courses on the island are “shite”, he says.Later that evening, he says, he will return to Puerto del Carmen’s garish strip for a few pints. It is a world away from the isolation of the inner island and the Dublin constituency he hopes to represent.Puerto del Carmen, where Gerry Hutch has been living for 12 years “It’s a slower pace of life here – just a sunshine state,” he says. “This is like Wexford. It’s lovely. The people are lovely. There’s an awful lot of people from all over the country here who I’m friends with.”The attention of tourists doesn’t bother him. He maintains those who approach him want to talk about the upcoming byelection, not his past.At the conclusion of the interview, he asks to be dropped off near his house but not before joking about the driving skills of The Irish Times video journalist up front: “You won’t be on the f**king list for a getaway driver.”
