Kinahan Hutch feud still active despite removal of 24-hour Garda at Patsy Hutch’s Dublin home

A day after The Mirror exclusively revealed that Garda bosses have decided to remove the permanent Garda presence around Mr Hutch’s house, sources say the cartel led by Daniel Kinahan still poses a danger to targets in Dublin

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The Kinahan Hutch feud is still alive – despite a Garda decision to remove a 24 hour guard from Patsy Hutch’s street, investigators have warned.

A day after The Mirror exclusively revealed that Garda bosses have decided to remove the permanent Garda presence around Mr Hutch’s house, sources say the cartel led by Daniel Kinahan still poses a danger to targets in Dublin

“The feud is not over, there are still things bubbling away in the background,” a source told us last night.

But the source said the decision to remove the guard – a so-called community reassurance post for the area in central Dublin where Patsy Hutch (62) lives – was based purely on a security assessment of any potential threat to him or his neighbours.

“People should not be making the mistake of thinking that this means the feud is over. We do not believe that is the case,” the source said.

“All it means is that we believe any threat to any people in that immediate area has been reduced enough to withdraw the permanent post.

“The analysis was specific to that post, nothing else.”

The source also said that there would still be a regular Garda presence near the inner city Dublin home of Mr Hutch – whose brother Gerry (60) was acquitted in April of the February 2016 murder of Kinahan associate David Byrne at the Regency Airport Hotel in the city.

“There will still be regular patrols and beats,” a source insisted.

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And the source also revealed that several key Kinahan associates live less than five minutes’ walk from Patsy Hutch – and the cartel would have known of the guard being taken away late last week shortly after it happened.

The post – which saw two uniformed gardai sitting in a patrol car yards away from Patsy’s inner city Dublin home – has now been replaced by regular patrolling.

The post had been in place since the Kinahan Hutch feud erupted in early 2016 – and has cost the state more than €1.5 million.

Patsy (62), who has not been charged with any offence, was given around the clock protection after the cartel made him one of their top targets – and repeatedly tried to murder him.

But sources have now told us that a recent security assessment concluded the risk had reduced – and now the gardai who had been assigned to protect him have been put back on the normal beat.

The post took up four gardai every day of the year – and they will now be diverted to help fight the street crime crisis in the city centre.

Senior gardai have been under pressure about crime in the capital, especially after last month’s brutal attack on US tourist Stephen Termini (57), which happened on Talbot Street – just 500 metres from Patsy’s home on Champions Avenue.

Both locations are covered by Store Street Garda Station – and sources last night told us the return of four gardai every day to normal policing duties would help bosses in the area.