Thomas ‘Nicky’ McConnell extradited to Dublin Airport over Kinahan cartel murder of Gareth Hutch

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This Irish criminal is finally on his way back home – to appear in court charged with the Kinahan cartel murder of a member of the Hutch family.

Dublin Live has established that Thomas “Nicky” McConnell, 36, is due to arrive in Dublin Airport later today, having been deported from Turkey where he has been held for almost a year.

Once he lands, he is expected to be brought to a central Dublin Garda station, where he will be charged with the murder of Gareth Hutch, shot dead by the Kinahan gang in May 2016.

McConnell, 36, was due to be deported from Turkey to Dublin two weeks ago, but it was delayed at the last moment because of COVID-19.

But time has now run out for McConnell and he is expected to appear in front of a Dublin judge later today.

McConnell, from Ballymun in the north of the city, had launched a final bid to block his deportation from Turkey following his arrest last July but a court threw out his appeal in April.

The Director of Public Prosecutions has already ordered gardai to charge McConnell with the murder of Mr Hutch – one of 18 men to die in the deadly Kinahan Hutch feud.

Detectives probing the murder of Mr Hutch – a nephew of number one cartel target Gerry “the Monk” Hutch who is himself on the run from gardai over plans to charge him with another feud murder – have been hunting McConnell for more than three years.

They knew he had skipped the country and appealed to Interpol for help in finding him – an appeal that saw McConnell arrested by cops in the Turkish sun resort of Kusadasi in July last year. 

He is the last remaining suspect not convicted of the Hutch murder.

Detectives believe McConnell and Keogh, 34, were the two men caught on CCTV as Mr Hutch, 35, was shot in the back of the head in central Dublin. They argued Keogh was the gunman and McConnell was the man with him.

Gardai had previously issued an EU-wide European Arrest Warrant request for McConnell – but Turkey is not part of that scheme.

But gardai then issued an Interpol Red Notice – which calls on police around the world to arrest a suspect on sight – and Turkish cops moved on McConnell.

McConnell is regarded as one of the gang’s most dangerous gangsters.

Like Keogh, McConnell fled Ireland following the gruesome murder of Mr Hutch in a killing that was caught on CCTV.

Keogh was arrested in England in June 2017 and brought back for trial – and the same will now happen to McConnell.

Keogh, his sister Regina, 42, and pal Thomas “Tossy” Fox, 32, were jailed for life in November 2018 for Mr Hutch’s murder – and McConnell was the only one left for gardai to hunt down.

Regina Keogh is now appealing her murder conviction and her case will be heard in December.

She was sentenced to life in prison in 2018 by the Special Criminal Court, who found that she had colluded with Jonathan Keogh to cause serious injury to Mr Hutch.

Jonathan Keogh was also jailed for life by the non-jury court, having been found guilty of the ‘deliberate and callous murder’ of Mr Hutch on the morning of May 24, 2016.

Mr Hutch was shot dead as he was getting into his car outside Avondale House flats on North Cumberland Street in Dublin.

He died as a result of four gunshot injuries; two to the back of the neck, one to the lower back and one to the right of the upper chest.

Regina Keogh, with a former address at Avondale House, and her brother, Jonathan Keogh, of Gloucester Place also in the north inner city, had denied murder.

Fox, of Rutland Court in Dublin, denied a murder charge, but was convicted and sentenced to life in prison alongside the Keoghs.

The Keoghs’ brother, Michael, 37, was shot dead by the Hutch gang in north central Dublin in May 2017 – almost a year to the day after the Gareth Hutch murder.

No-one has been charged with the murder of Michael Keogh.

Gareth’s uncle, Gerry “The Monk” Hutch is also on the run from gardai over the February 2016 attack on the Regency Airport Hotel in north Dublin in which Kinahan associate David Byrne, 34, was shot dead.

The DPP has ruled he is to be charged with Mr Byrne’s murder.

The Monk, 57, was recently spotted in Spain, but has now vanished.

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