HIT FOILED
Gardaí step in to save brother of The Monk
GARDAÍ foiled a plot to murder the brother of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch yesterday, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned.
Patsy Hutch was saved thanks to an intelligence-led operation which ended with the arrest of a former British army soldier and his brother, a well-known hitman, and another man.
All three were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. A fourth man held in a follow-up operation is from Santry in north Dublin. He was arrested in relation to a separate matter a number of weeks ago in Tallaght.
One of the men is in his 20s, two are in their 30s, and the fourth is in his 40s. Three guns were seized at the scene: a sub-machine gun, a semi-automatic, and a revolver.
More guns and ammunition were found later when gardaí carried out searches in north Dublin, west Dublin and the north-inner city. They discovered another gun and machine gun in a house in Finglas, and a silencer and ammunition in a house in Tallaght. Detectives in the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau have prevented up to 45 assassination attempts since the Kinahan-Hutch gang feud began.
The latest arrests came following an intelligence-led operation by the Bureau into the activities of the feuding Hutch and Kinahan gangs.
Yesterday morning gardaí had being watching a number of men moving around a car and a van in a basement carpark at Belmont Apartments, off Gardiner Street, in Dublin’s north-inner city
At around 7.40am, armed officers from the Emergency Response and Armed Support Units moved in and arrested three men.
The three firearms were also recovered at the time. Detectives believe the men were contracted by the Kinahan criminal gang to kill Patsy Hutch, and the foiled hit comes after graffiti was scrawled on a north-inner city church that read: ‘Patsy dead, feud ends.’ The threat was made days after Patsy’s nephew Derek Coakley Hutch was murdered outside Cloverhill Prison in west Dublin in January.
The graffiti was painted on the side of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Seán McDermott Street.
Patsy, whose son Patrick is on trial for the alleged murder of Kinahan cartel member David Byrne, has been repeatedly warned his life is in danger. He continues to live in the north-inner city and is being closely protected by gardaí.
In a statement yesterday, the Garda Press Office said: ‘Shortly before 8am on March 10, gardaí from the Garda Emergency Response Unit intercepted a van on Gardiner Street in Dublin. Three men were arrested for conspiracy to murder and are detained at Garda stations in the Dublin Metropolitan Region.’
Assistant Commissioner John O’Driscoll, who is responsible for Special Crime Operations, said: ‘I want to compliment all personnel within the Garda Síochána who continuously display an extraordinary level of commitment, professionalism and also bravery, when given difficult assignments.’
The graffiti read: ‘Patsy dead, feud ends’