The four men set to stand trial for the murder of alleged Kinahan Cartel lieutenant David Byrne are to be held in a high security prison wing.
According to Dublin Live four men who are due to stand trial over the 2016 Regency Hotel shooting have been told that their lives are at risk in prison and have been moved to cells in a special security wings at the Cloverhill and Wheatfield prisons. Authorities believe the accused attacked a boxing weigh-in show, killing David Byrne, as part of the Hutch-Kinahan gang feud.
The shooting happened on February 5, 2016. It featured a team of five masked gunmen, three of whom were dressed as local police officers, storming the room where weigh-ins for an MGM boxing show were being held. Byrne, an alleged Kinahan lieutenant, was the only person killed in the incident. It is believed that the intended target of the attack was MGM founder Daniel Kinahan, who is alleged to be the leader of the Kinahan Organized Crime Group.
Jonathan Dowdall, a former Dublin city councillor, his father Patrick, Paul Murphy and Jason Bonney are all being segregated in prison for fears that Kinahan associates may target them behind bars. Jonathan Dowdall has been charged with murdering Byrne. The others are accused of securing hotel rooms and vehicles for the gunmen.
Suspected Hutch Gang leader Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch is also wanted on murder charges in relation to this incident. Hutch is believed to be hiding in Europe. Investigators believe Hutch ordered the attack in response to an assassination attempt against him in Lanzarote, Spain in 2015.
The Hutch-Kinahan feud began when Gary Hutch, Hutch’s nephew, was executed by alleged Kinahan associates in Spain in 2015.
After the Regency Hotel shooting Daniel Kinahan fled to Dubai. From the Middle East Kinahan has worked to overhaul his image from that of an alleged crime boss to a power broker in the world of boxing.
The company he founded, MGM, rebranded to become MTK Global after the shooting. MTK has since signed deals with Top Rank and ESPN+ and become one of the most powerful boxing companies on the planet.
MTK currently represents Tyson Fury, Billy Joe Saunders, Carl Frampton, and the Conlan brothers among a slew of top internationally known boxers. MTK’s MMA wing represents dozens of fighters including UFC talents Darren Till, Alexander Rakic, Sumadaerji, Talia Santos, and Dusko Todorovic.
MTK has long claimed that Kinahan stopped working with the company around 2016. However, many MTK clients have revealed that Kinahan remained as their personal ‘advisor’.
Last year Fury created controversy when he publicly thanked Kinahan for negotiating his deals to face Anthony Joshua. This lead to Irish politicians calling for a boycott of that fight. Fury, and his US promoter Bob Arum, later stated that they would no longer work with Kinahan.