Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch still being investigated by gardai and Spanish police

The veteran gangster was recently allowed to travel back to Ireland from Spain while on bail for money laundering charges

By: irishmirror.ie

Dec 02 2024
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Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch still b

Failed Dail candidate Gerry “The Monk” Hutch is still being investigated for alleged serious crimes – in Ireland and Spain.

The veteran gangster – named in the High Court by the Criminal Assets Bureau as the head of the Hutch Organised Crime Gang - is under the microscope of gardai and Spanish cops.

A Garda investigation that saw the 61-year-old arrested in September 2022 while in custody is ongoing - and sources say the Director of Public Prosecutions has received the Garda file on the probe.

Mr Hutch was arrested while on remand for the February 2016 murder of Kinahan ally David Byrne, 33, at Dublin’s Regency Airport Hotel – for which he was acquitted last year by the non-jury Special Criminal Court. He was released without charge and sent back to the custody of the Prison Service after around a day – but gardai in the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation kept up the probe.

The probe is into suspicion that he directed a crime gang. That is an offence that carries a maximum sentence of life in jail. His arrest was connected to a long-running probe into allegations that criminals were passed intelligence by a retired garda. That former officer - ex-Superintendent John Murphy – is currently locked up after he pleaded guilty to drugs charges.

Independent candidate Gerry Hutch leaves the RDS Simmonscourt, Dublin (Image: Brian Lawless/PA Wire)

The probe also saw three serving gardai suspended on suspicion of having links to the Hutch gang. One is a member of the anti-terror Special Detective Unit, while two others are in different organisations. Investigators now suspect the former superintendent Murphy, 64 had a relationship with the Hutch gang that allegedly saw the ex-Garda pass on information gleaned from serving members of the force.

Sources say that the probe is complex – but ongoing.

At the same time, Mr Hutch is also being investigated by Spanish police on direction of a magistrate – over allegations of money laundering. Mr Hutch, who has property in Spain and Ireland, was arrested at his home in Lanzarote on October 25 as part of a Guardia Civil investigation into alleged money laundering.

He spent some time in custody before being released on bail of €100,000 – with one of the reasons for him winning his freedom being that Spanish judges allowed him to head back to Ireland to stand for election in the Dublin Central constituency.

Gerry Hutch pictured at the election count at the RDS in Dublin (Image: Sam Boal/Collins Photos)

The Guardia Civil investigation has been running for several years – and also saw gardai search Mr Hutch’s property in Clontarf, north Dublin – although nobody was arrested there.

Spanish authorities later freed him on bail – but alleged he was the leader of an international crime gang.

A court spokesman on Lanzarote said on November 4: “The Irish citizen in preventive detention in Lanzarote since last October 25 as the alleged leader of an international gang of criminals has been provisionally released on bail of 100,000 euros on the morning of this Monday, November 4, after estimating the judicial authority (Instruction two of Arrecife) his appeal for reform against the prison order.”

Mr Hutch has not been convicted of any offence related to the two separate investigations.

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