Gardaí had intelligence that the Kinahan cartel were planning to “steal” the body of Eddie Hutch days after shooting him, sources have revealed.
Daniel Kinahan’s mob were “hellbent” on “humiliating” the Hutch family and “embarrassing” gardai as the murderous fallout of the Regency Hotel attack was just getting underway.
Last week a senior cartel hitman was arrested from Mountjoy Prison, where he is serving a lengthy sentence for serious offences, and was quizzed by detectives over the murder of Eddie, 58, on February 8, 2016.
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Investigators had uncovered fresh evidence to make the arrest but in doing so they also found a phone in his cell which is now under examination.
The murder of Gerry “The Monk” Hutch’s brother came just three days after the Regency attack which claimed the life of senior Kinahan member David Byrne.
In revenge on the Hutch gang, who orchestrated the gun attack, the Kinahan cartel shot innocent taximan Eddie.
But sources have told how Eddie’s wake and funeral was the Kinahans’ next target.
Investigators had intelligence that they had hired a man to target Hutch family members at the funeral.
A source said: “There were a lot of proposed threats at the time and gardai were taking most of them very seriously.
“Among them was that they were actually going to try to steal Eddie Hutch’s body.
“So gardai took every single measure there was in terms of security.”
The alert level heightened when a Kinahan member was spotted in the north inner city before Eddie’s body was returned to his home for the wake. The Garda op saw the home guarded night and day, rooftops manned with armed personnel for the funeral and bomb sweeps of churches.
Another source said: “The Kinahans were hellbent on humiliating the Hutch family even after killing one of their innocent loved ones. Everyone knows it didn’t stop there either.
“They were also giving the two fingers to the State and they wanted to embarrass gardai.”
The funeral passed without incident but the appearance of “The Monk” in a wig was to be the last time he would be seen in Ireland until his extradition from Spain five years later.
Gerry Hutch is currently before the Special Criminal Court charged with the murder of Byrne at the Regency Hotel.
The court is set to deliver its judgment next week.
The man, 42, arrested from prison last week to be quizzed over Eddie’s murder is one of Ireland’s most dangerous criminals. He is suspected of carrying out a number of shootings on gang leader Kinahan’s orders.
Gardai believe the gangster was the gunman who tried to kill fallen druglord John Gilligan in 2013 when he stormed into a pub but “Factory John” was in a different boozer nearby.
The thug was quickly identified as the chief suspect in the Eddie Hutch case. He has since been convicted over other serious offences including drugs and is currently serving a long sentence.
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