Gritty Irish crime drama Kin has been wowing Netflix fans – but the real-life tale of Irish cartels is even more terrifying.
Kin follows Dublin crime family the Kinsellas as they look to stamp their mark on the cocaine industry.
Its creator, Peter McKenna, has said it is not based on a real-life Irish cartel conflict that shocked the nation after 18 people were murdered between 2015 and 2018.
But there are some eerie parallels and below we look at two key events that sparked the gruesome and very much real gangland feud between the Hutch and Kinahan factions.
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(Image: Supplied)
Background
The Kinahan cartel, headed by convicted drug smuggler Christy ‘Dapper Don’ Kinahan, used to have close ties with the Hutch gang, led by Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch. Gerry’s nephew, Gary Hutch, was even said to be the “right-hand man” of Daniel Kinahan, the son of Christy, according to Spanish police.
But relationships soured at the funeral of Daniel’s mother, Jean Boylan, when graffiti branded Gary a “rat”. This was in relation to a €10million shipment of ketamine and cannabis that was seized in Cheshire in February 2014.
Gary then planned a failed assassination attempt on his former friend Daniel outside his home in Estepona, Spain, six months after his mum’s funeral. Daniel survived as did boxer Jamie Moore who was shot by mistake.
(Image: PA)
Daniel was paid €200,000 by the Hutch family as compensation with mob bosses Gerry and Christy meeting up to agree a deal to pardon Gary.
Gary Hutch murder
Despite the deal, Gary was shot dead in Spain in August 2015, and this is what sparked the brutal feud between the two mobs.
It led to 18 murders on the streets of Dublin and beyond. Speaking to the Irish Sun, former Garda Assistant Commissioner John O’Driscoll said the police had no idea just how much the conflict would escalate.
He said: “Well, obviously we were very much aware of the fact that Gary had been murdered. The extent to which any particular organised crime group would engage in a tit-for-tat sort of situation is just impossible to establish.
“And obviously we monitored the activity, the criminal activity. The difficulty I suppose we had from the Garda Siochana perspective was that, you know, you had a murder in Spain.
(Image: Collins Agency)
“But it would have been very difficult to foresee that the criminality involved and particularly the threat to life aspect was going to extend to the level that it eventually did.”
Regency Hotel murder
While the murder of Gary Hutch sparked the gangland war, the most notorious event happened inside the Regency Hotel in February 2016.
Daniel Kinahan, who was involved in boxing management, was at the Dublin hotel for a boxing weigh-in.
During the event, four men, two who were dressed as police, stormed the building where children were present, armed with AK-47s.
The Kinahan father and son escaped unscathed but their associate, David Byrne, was shot dead in front of horrified civilians.
Just three days later, the brother of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch, Eddie, was murdered at his home in Dublin, in a suspected revenge hit.
(Image: PA)
In total, 18 people were killed at various stages of the gangland war, with 10 of them happening in 2016 alone. Three of the killings were cases of mistaken identity while four Hutch family members lost their lives in the dispute.
What happened next
Gerry was arrested in 2021 over the Regency Hotel murder, forcing him to return to Ireland for the first time since his brother was taken out.
But the mob boss walked free after being acquitted before returning to Lanzarote.
Daniel Kinahan meanwhile, whose family has a $1billion empire, is said to be holed up in a swanky flat on Palm Jumeirah, an artificial island in Dubai. He is a wanted man over the murder of Eddie Hutch.
(Image: Supplied)
In 2022, the US government announced a $5m (£3.8m) reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of key figures of the Kinahan organised crime group. US officials said they wanted the gang leaders to answer crimes relating to the smuggling of “deadly narcotics, including cocaine, to Europe”.
And Matt Horne, from Britain’s NCA, said in a statement: “They thought they were untouchable, but we will explore every opportunity to disrupt their criminal activities. We will not stop here.”