Gardaí have sent a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions relating to the 2016 Kinahan-Hutch feud murder of Eddie Hutch containing evidence they believe could lead to a number of men being charged with offences relating to the killing.
One of the suspects in the file, and against who gardaí are seeking charges, is Dubai-based Daniel Kinahan. It is the second major file the Garda has sent to the DPP seeking charges against Kinahan.
Last year it emerged a file had been sent after a Garda investigation into the Kinahan cartel leadership, with charges sought.
However, although gardaí want Kinahan to be charged, the DPP must agree the evidence gathered by the Garda incriminates him and is strong enough to ground a prosecution.
No decision has yet been reached in relation to the file sent last year. It will be some time, at last several months, before any decision would be made about whether Kinahan, or other men investigated by gardaí, would be charged with any offences arising from the Eddie Hutch killing.
The fact the file had recently been sent to the DPP over Mr Hutch’s murder eight years ago emerged at an inquest hearing on Monday in Dublin into the feud murder of the taxi driver, a brother of veteran criminal Gerry Hutch.
Mr Hutch was gunned down outside his home on Poplar Row in Dublin’s north inner city on February 8th, 2016. The murder of 59-year-old father-of-five occurred three days after an attack at the Regency Hotel, north Dublin, where Kinahan associate David Byrne, of Crumlin, Dublin, was shot dead.
The gunmen were intent on shooting dead cartel leader Daniel Kinahan in revenge for the murder in Spain of Gary Hutch in September, 2015. However, Kinahan fled on foot and Byrne was shot instead.
Eddie Hutch’s murder was the first killing by the Kinahan cartel immediately after the Regency ambush, with the killing spree by the Kinahan cartel then continuing until the end of 2018.
David Byrne was a brother of Liam Byrne, who was the leader of the Byrne organised crime group, which ran much of the Kinahans’ drug dealing operation in Ireland.
When David Byrne was shot dead at the Regency, gardaí expected a series of revenge shootings but were surprised the cartel decided to shoot Eddie Hutch and to target him so quickly. Detectives believe he was first to be shot dead as he was regarded as a soft target who could be located immediately.
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