Dublin thug a suspect in gang killing
A CONVICTED armed robber from Dublin’s north-inner city has emerged as a suspect for the gangland murder of father-of-two Michael Keogh on Wednesday morning.
The criminal is understood to be in his early 40s and linked to the Hutch crime gang.
But sources say this is just ‘an early lead’ and is ‘in no way definitive’.
The Irish Daily Mail can also reveal that gardaí are examining a second theory, a ‘possibility’ that Mr Keogh was shot by associates of dissident republican Michael Barr, murdered in a Dublin pub last year by the Kinahan cartel.
Barr is suspected of involvement in the Regency Hotel murder of key Kinahan lieutenant David Byrne. Security sources say dissidents blame an associate of Mr Keogh for setting up the murder of Barr at the Sunset House in April 2016. But they say the ‘most likely’ scenario is that the Hutch mob were responsible for the death of Mr Keogh.
The killing was the 12th murder in the Kinahan-Hutch feud, and gardaí are braced for further bloodshed in retaliation from the Kinahan cartel.
Keogh, 37, originally from the north inner city, was shot several times in the head and chest. The Mail can also reveal that gardaí yesterday visited people on both sides of those actively involved in the feud – mainly around the north inner city and Crumlin – to warn them to be extra careful.
A senior source said: ‘Some of them laughed it off, but they often react like that when gardaí call to their door. Deep down some are terrified they will be next.’
There are increased armed Garda patrols in the main feud flashpoints in the city.