‘Kill a Hutch, any Hutch’ – chilling plea af ter murder
A CRIMINAL based in Portugal has issued a chilling threat to ‘kill a Hutch, any Hutch’ in retaliation for the murder of father-of-two Michael Keogh last week.
The criminal, a close associate of the latest victim of the HutchKinahan feud, is on the run as he is suspected of involvement of one of the feud murders on behalf of the Kinahan cartel.
Gardaí received intelligence about this latest threat and it is being taken ‘extremely seriously’.
The north inner city, which is predominantly where the Hutch gang are based, has been ‘flooded’ this bank holiday weekend with armed gardaí. A senior source said: ‘There are more armed checkpoints, more armed patrols, officers are just everywhere.
‘Gardaí are speaking to all the Hutch gang members and their associates. They are giving them security advice and basically just advising them to be very careful; [to change] their routines.
‘There are gardaí sitting on the houses of some of the main Hutch targets to try to deter any more bloodshed.’
The key Hutch figure is Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch. He is understood to be in hiding.
Investigating gardaí have raided the homes of two men in the north inner city suspected of involvement in the latest gang murder. The latest killing was the 12th murder in the ongoing feud, and gardaí are now braced for further bloodshed in retaliation from the Kinahan cartel.
Keogh, 37, originally from Seán McDermott Street in the north inner city, was shot several times in the head and chest.
Gardaí believe he was targeted because his associates were involved in the murder of Gareth Hutch, whose anniversary fell just a week before this latest killing.
Gardaí have intelligence that Keogh was carrying out criminal work for the Kinahan cartel, and was recently involved in burning out cars belonging to women linked to senior Hutch gang members.
A senior source said: ‘Michael Keogh was no innocent. He was involved with the INLA and was something of a henchman for the Kinahans. He was something of a plastic republican, though. He was a criminal for hire, essentially.’
The source said: ‘The Hutches are raging also that several of their women’s cars have been burnt out by the Kinahans. They suspect Michael Keogh was directly involved in some of these. “Mess with us but not our women”, has been the view of some senior Hutch figures.’
Inner city ‘flooded’ with armed gardaí