DUBLIN NORTH, A Killing Ground

A nephew of Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch was riddled up to six times by a Kinahan hit squad in Dublin's north inner city yesterday.

Taxi driver Gareth Hutch, 35, was blasted several times in the head, neck and chest by two gunmen as he got into a black Volkswagen before 10am.

The assassins, both carrying handguns with silencers, approached Hutch at the Avondale House flat complex off North Cumberland Street and shot him beside his VW Passat.

Fatally injured, the father of one fell near the open car door and died.

As the capital was rocked by the seventh execution in the Hutch-Kinahan feud, it emerged:

HUTCH was desperate to move as he feared the Kinahans would try to kill him while his seven-year-old son was staying with him.

HIS cousin Ross witnessed the horror execution and chased after the killers.

THE crazed gunmen failed to start their BMW getaway car and left two handguns at the scene, and

THE brazen killers, one wearing a scarf, struck even though an armed Garda checkpoint was in operation just 200 metres away on Mountjoy Square.

A witness said: "Two guys jumped out of a car. Moments later we heard three or four shots.

"They had guns with silencers. They shot the guy by the window."

The witness, who ran to check on the victim, added: "I went over and I felt for a pulse but there was none.

Detectives told the Irish Mirror the north inner city is now a "killing ground" for Kinahan hitmen intent on wiping out the Hutches and their families.

One said: "It is not just a feud anymore - this is a massacre. It's as simple as that.

"The Hutches are being taken out, one by one. The Kinahans have killed six - the Hutches just one, Davy Byrne, at the Regency Hotel.

"Gerry Hutch, the Monk, is reeling from this. And knows he could be next. He is top of the Kinahan hit list.

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/crime/taxi-driver-gareth-hutch-blasted-8043762?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

WORCESTER

POLICE caught a man carrying heroin and crack cocaine worth about £7,500 after stopping a taxi in Worcester, a court heard.

Atif Hussain, aged 20, of Glendower Road, Perry Barr, Birmingham, was acting as courier for the drugs, Worcester Crown Court was told.

Hussain admitted possessing heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply and was given two years' detention by Recorder Justin Wigoder.

William Dudley, prosecuting, said police had received intelligence about people traveling from Birmingham to Worcester to supply drugs.

And, on January 25, officers in plain clothes followed a Birmingham-based taxi, which stopped next to another cab in the Bath Road area.

Officers later stopped one of the taxis to find Hussain, a rear passenger, who accepted he had drugs.

He was caught with heroin worth just over £6,000 and crack cocaine valued at £1,390.

Martyn Keys, defending Hussain - who also admitted breaching a suspended prison sentence for battery- said he had been the courier for the drugs and was due to be paid £100 but never got the money.

Mr Keys also said Hussain had done a course in barbering while in prison and wanted to move on with his life.

http://goo.gl/8R4gcr