KINAHAN cartel victim Gareth Hutch begged to be re-housed in the weeks before his murder for fear he’d be wiped out in front of his young son.
The Monk’s nephew's final days living in terror of the evil Kinahan mob, pleading with local authorities to move him due to safety concerns as the Kinahan/Hutch feud escalated, are detailed in the latest episode of The Irish Sun's smash-hit podcast The Kinahans.
Former lord mayor of Dublin, Nial Ring, revealed how Gerry’s nephew Gareth had visited him in the weeks before his killing and told of his fears he’d be murdered in front of his young son, begging to be re-housed in a safer property.
Ring said: “Gareth was a lovely guy and he came up to my office in May. And he just sat down, and he was no, he was quite calm about it.
“And as I said at the time, he said to me… He had a foreboding (feeling).
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“He said, ‘I think they’re going to get me, but I don’t want them to do it in front of me kid’.
“He had a little fellow at the time who was nine, I think. Nine or ten, who was living with him in Avondale House.
“And he said, ‘the security in the place is absolutely terrible. There’s CCTV for other parts, I’m totally exposed… People get in the window, people get in the front, whatever’.”
Ring added: “But again, it was just all about his kid. And that was that was the sad part about it.
“I mean, here was a guy just, you know, knowing he was in under the threat, but at the same time, his only concern, wasn’t his own life, it was his kid.
“Making sure his kid didn’t see him being shot in front of them.”
Gareth Hutch was ultimately proved right when he was savagely murdered by a Kinahan hit gang in a car park at a flat complex later that month.
Disturbing footage showed the dad-of-one walking to his car outside his home at the Avondale House Flats on North Cumberland Street in Dublin on May 24, 2016.
As he took off his jacket and threw it in the back seat of the car, the two brutes were seen emerging from the stairwell and running towards the oblivious Hutch.
Hutch, 36, then goes to sit in behind the wheel but one of the hitmen runs up directly behind him and blasts him four times from close-range.
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The ruthless killers could then be seen sprinting away from the murder scene in horrific social media footage posted online.
Irish Sun crime editor Stephen Breen said: “I think it’s another chilling example of the reality of organised crime and the reality of the threat that the Kinahan Cartel group posed to the people of North Inner City at that time.
“And you can clearly see them lifting their hands up and firing the shots.
“You can see the smoke coming from the guns as well and murdering him in cold blood. It is very chilling.
“But again, there was nothing but support for the Hutch family.
“I think that the Kinahans thought that they were going to turn the north inner city against the Hutchs is actually had the opposite effect, where people were genuinely expressing remorse and sympathy for the Hutch family because of the relentless campaign, you know, initiated by the Kinahan group.”
'THE SCARY PART'
Ring told of learning of the murder minutes after it occurred, explaining: “I heard he was shot. He was actually going to that meeting (about securing a new flat). That’s that was the real scary part.
“But the fact that I had set him up with a meeting which ended up he was shot as he was coming out of the flat Complex to go to.
"And that was that was something that will always resonate with me. And I when I heard I was very upset.”
Gareth Hutch’s innocent sister Melissa later found herself targeted by the ruthless Kinahan mob as the feud escalated.
Melissa and her young son were targeted in a pipe-bomb attack at their Dublin city centre home by mob enforcers as part of a campaign to force her from the area.
In November 2018, Jonathan Keogh, of Gloucester Place, Dublin 1, was found guilty at the non-jury Special Criminal Court of being the man who shot Hutch dead in a “callous and cold-blooded manner”.
Thomas Fox, with an address at Rutland Court, Dublin 1, was also found guilty of Hutch’s murder and for unlawfully possessing a Makarov 9mm handgun on May 23, 2016 at the same place.
And Regina Keogh, of Avondale House, Cumberland Street North, Dublin 1, was also found guilty of the murder – becoming the first woman convicted over the deadly Hutch-Kinahan feud.
All three were caged for life.
DUBAI MOVE
Elsewhere a former top garda told how the Kinahans’ move to Dubai has put them outside the “tentacles” of Irish law enforcement - using their new base to establish links with the elite of the middle east.
Michael O’Sullivan revealed how wanted drug traffickers Christy, Daniel and Christopher fled their jurisdiction as the international net around them tightened in the midst of the Hutch/Kinahan feud.
Speaking to the Irish Sun’s new podcast The Kinahans, about the cartel’s deadly rise to become a global drugs peddling organisation, O’Sullivan revealed how gardai had prepared themselves for every eventuality.
Speaking to the Irish Sun’s Damien Lane, he explained: “The guards are prepared for everything from the point of view of, you’re dealing with criminals, and they’re trying to be a step ahead of you.
“So when the pressure comes on in Ireland, they move. When it comes on in Holland, they move on. When it comes on Spain, the move… And the pressure was on.
“The pressure was on at an international level.
“So, you know, when it gets to that stage, law enforcement internationally knows about you.
“You can’t stay in Europe when all the European law enforcement agencies know about you. It’s a matter of time, so you’ve got to keep moving.”
Detective Chief Superintendent Seamus Boland explained how international agencies shared information on Ireland’s most notorious crime gang.
He said: “We would have known immediately, when people were travelling to the UAE.
“You know, again, our outreach, as I say, in law enforcement, is global. So so when people moved, when they were about to move, we were, we were fully aware of that.”
Former Assistant Commissioner John O’Driscoll added: “But the problem when one is dealing with an organised crime group based in a place like Dubai is that while the tentacles of the organised crime groups spread across the globe, the tentacles of the Criminal Assets Bureau don’t.”
It’s believed that Daniel is still based at his plush Dubai bolthole, where he heads his dad’s evil empire believed to be worth €1billion.
- The Kinahans, currently one of Ireland’s top podcasts, is available on all popular podcast platforms - including Apple and Spotify.
