A sixth person has been shot dead in the violent feud between Ireland’s two most notorious criminals that erupted after an armed assault on a boxing weigh-in in February.
The man was shot dead in a bar in Dublin’s inner city around 9.30pm on Monday night. A number of gunmen burst into the Sunset pub in north central Dublin and opened fire.
After the shooting, a burnt-out car was found the nearby Drumcondra district.
A member of the Irish parliament claimed that CCTV installed in the area just days ago in response to other gangland-related murders may have captured the gang’s escape from the pub.
Security sources in the Irish capital were linking the murder to the gang warfare between Costal del Sol-based Irish drug smuggler Christy Kinahan and north Dublin career criminal Gerry “the Monk” Hutch.
Both gangsters gained international notoriety following an audacious armed attack at a boxing weigh-in at Dublin’s Regency hotel in February. The assault had been organised by a gang controlled by Hutch during which gunmen burst into the hotel using bibs with “Garda” emblazoned on them.
One of Kinahan’s loyal enforcers in Dublin, 33-year-old David Byrne, was shot dead in the Regency hotel attack, which was captured by cameras covering the boxing event.
Hutch’s gang launched the attack in revenge for the murder of Hutch’s nephew, Gary, by Kinahan’s men in Spain last September. Gary Hutch was chased around his Andalusian apartment before being shot dead inside the villa because members of Kinahan’s gang believed he had told the Garda and Interpol about a drug shipment they were in charge of.
In retaliation for the Regency hotel attack, gangsters loyal to Kinahan have since shot dead Hutch’s brother, taxi driver Eddie Hutch, 59, and later a cigarette smuggler Noel “Mr Kingsize” Duggan.
Fine Gael TD Noel Rock said the car the killers used in this sixth murder over the past three months was left in a spot covered by newly installed CCTV.
“I trust gardai will seek this footage as soon as possible from Dublin city council and use every avenue possible,” Rock said.
The Ballybough area where the pub is situated was sealed off by Gardai and a Garda Siochana helicopter was deployed over north Dublin.
