Properties searched in Dublin as gardaí investigate latest feud murder

A number of properties were searched in Dublin on Wednesday as gardaí continued investigations into the latest murder in the gang feud between the Kinahan and Hutch factions.

Gardaí investigating the murder of Gareth Hutch in Dublin city centre on Tuesday have appealed for the public's assistance in tracing the movements of a silver Skoda car either before or after the shooting.

A 29-year-old man who presented himself to gardaí on Tuesday night in connection with the killing of Gareth Hutch remains in custody.

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The late Gareth Hutch (front left) carrying the coffin of his uncle Eddie Hutch, who was killed as as part of a feud between the Hutch and Kinahan gangs.

Gareth Hutch, a taxi-driver and father of one, was shot a number of times close to his flat at Avondale House on North Cumberland Street in Dublin 1.

The car – registration 05 D 15049 – was observed on Seán McDermott Street after 10am on Tuesday. It was seen on Rutland Street Lower and was later found, burned out, in the Dubber Cross area of Finglas.

Gardaí believe the lives of up to 10 close associates of murdered gangland figure Gary Hutch, a cousin of the man killed on Tuesday, are at immediate risk as the Kinahan gang seeks retaliation for alleged plots to kill some of its members.

Senior officers concede that gardaí in Dublin city face growing pressure from the actions of the Kinahan gang.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny is to receive a briefing from Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan later on the security situation following the latest killing.

Mr Kenny told the Dáil the briefing would involve details of what resources were currently available to gardaí and what was needed going forward.

“I will share that with the leaders of the groups here so that you are fully up to date on what the situation is,” he added.

Task force

Mr Kenny also said a task force would be set up “dealing with this local situation in the inner city and an action-based national strategy dealing with drugs’’.

Assistant commissioner Jack Nolan has defended the Garda's record in increasing security in the area after a series of shootings in the north inner city, saying armed checkpoints would continue, but gardaí "cannot be everywhere".

Speaking on Wednesday, Garda Representative Association (GRA) president Ciaran O'Neill said criminal gangs responsible for the recent spate of murders "have no fear of An Garda Siochana" and that frontline resources are under serious pressure. He said gardaí were under-resourced, under-trained and undervalued.

“Let’s take this incident in respect of organised crime. Twenty five per cent of the detectives tasked to deal with that are adequately trained to interview the suspects,” he told RTÉ News at One. “Members on the frontline are actually working on a skeleton service to provide the additional resources and the additional policing that that area [in the north inner city] needs.”

Mr O’Neill said the situation would only deteriorate without resources and manpower. “These (killers) have no fear of An Garda Siochana. There was a checkpoint not too far away from when that incident happened yesterday,” he said. “They work without any fear from members of An Garda Siochana but they need to see a presence and a visible presence.”

Accomplice

Gareth Hutch had previously been charged in connection with an armed robbery in which an accomplice was shot dead by a garda, but he was not regarded as a major gang figure. He is the third member of the extended Hutch family to lose his life to the feud and the seventh in total.

The man killed on Tuesday was a cousin of Gary Hutch (34), whose murder inSpain last September at the hands of his former associates in the drugs gang led by Christy Kinahan, began the feud which has now claimed seven lives.

The first man shot dead in Ireland was Kinahan gang member David Byrne (33), in the Regency Hotel in February. His associates have now avenged his death with five murders in the intervening 3½ months. Of the seven murders to date in the feud, Kinahan's gang has been responsible for six.

A number of men close to Byrne, who have amassed considerable wealth from drug dealing as part of the Kinahan gang, are based mainly in Dublin.

According to informed sources, they have used fellow criminals as informants and have effectively carried out their own investigation into Byrne's murder. They believe up to 15 men were involved in the planning of the murder at the Regency Hotel, Drumcondra, and its execution on the day.

One source said: “It seems outlandish [the Kinahan gang] would want to kill 10 or maybe 15 people, but five are gone already and we really may only be at the start of this.”

Other senior officers said they found it impossible to see the violence ending, saying the Kinahan gang had resources to fund contract killings.

Gardaí expect a number of men to be before the courts “very soon” to be charged with some of the recent murders.

However, the whereabouts of many of those involved on both sides of the dispute was unknown.