News

PSNI seize car in Tyrone as part of Dublin gangland probe

Flowers left outside the Regency Hotel in Dublin
Flowers left outside the Regency Hotel in Dublin Flowers left outside the Regency Hotel in Dublin

The PSNI have seized a car in Co Tyrone as part of an investigation into a gangland murder in Dublin earlier this month.

The vehicle was taken away from a house in the Strabane area on Thursday.

The Irish News revealed yesterday that the same property was searched by police a day earlier.

The car was seized as part of an investigation into a gangland feud between two Spanish based crime gangs being fought out on the streets of Dublin.

The shooting war kicked off after Dublin gang member David Byrne was gunned down when a gang armed with automatic riffles burst into a boxing weigh-in in the Regency Hotel in Dublin two-weeks ago and opened fire.

Days later Eddie Hutch Senior, who was buried yesterday, was murdered in his Dublin home in a revenge attack.

It is understood that Gardai have identified a Co Tyrone man as a suspect in the attack.

A former republican prisoner, he was later linked to Republican Action Against Drugs.

In 2014 he was acquitted of taking part in a kneecapping carried out several years earlier.

Now defunct, RAAD carried out dozens of gun attacks on alleged drug dealers in the north-west between 2008 and 2012.

Armed and masked men were pictured walking into the Regency hotel earlier this month before the deadly attack.

Two other armed men, one dressed as a women, were later photographed running from the scene.

In the days after the attack a man claiming to represent the Continuity IRA said the group was responsible.

However, the mainstream Continuity IRA, linked to Republican Sinn Féin, later said it had no involvement in the attack.

A spokesman for the PSNI said: "Police seized a car from a property in Newtown Street in Strabane on Thursday evening as part of an investigation into serious crime."