By David Amoruso for Gangsters Inc.
Irish crime boss Gerry “The Monk” Hutch has been arrested in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol in Spain on Thursday. A European Arrest Warrant was issued in April charging him with involvement in the brazen murder of gangster David Byrne at the Regency Hotel in Dublin in 2016.
Hutch had been a fugitive ever since the arrest warrant was issued. He was using a Spanish ID card when he was arrested at a restaurant where he had just ordered a drink and was seated at an outdoors table.
Come at the King
The Regency Hotel shooting was one of the most audacious hits in Irish history. That day, February 5, the weigh-ins for the boxing match for the WBO European lightweight title between Jamie Kavanagh and Antonio João Bento took place at the hotel. Both fighters were scheduled to fight each other the next day at the Clash of the Clans at Dublin’s National Boxing Stadium.
At the weigh-ins several leading figures of Ireland’s Kinahan Clan were present, including the group’s boss Daniel Kinahan. It was for him that several individuals wearing masks, flak jackets and helmets and armed with AK-47s entered the hotel and began firing several shots.
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As screams echoed through the hotel and the crowd ran for the nearest exit, the attackers began scanning for targets. Kinahan had already been ushered out of the hotel by his bodyguards, but one of his close associates, David Byrne, was within range and shot to death by the hitmen. He was 32.
All attackers managed to escape from the crime scene.
The Kinahan-Hutch feud
Authorities were quick to realize this was the boldest act of violence in what was to be dubbed the Kinahan-Hutch feud, a deadly war between two factions of the Dublin underworld. On one side there were the Kinahan Clan led by father Christy and son Daniel, on the other was longtime gangster Gerry Hutch, who had been active in organized crime for several decades.
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The feud began with the killing of Gary Hutch, the nephew of Gerry, on September 24, 2015, who was shot dead in a private apartment complex in Miraflores near Marbella in Spain. This set off a series of tit-for-tat revenge murders.
Charges (dropped)
Gary’s brother Patrick Hutch was charged with the David Byrne killing in May of 2016, but charges were dropped in February of 2019. Now, authorities view Gerry as the mastermind behind the gangland slaying. Whether the charges will stick to the slick 58-year-old mob boss remains to be seen.
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