A senior member of the Kinahan cartel who was shot dead in the infamous Regency Hotel gun attack and wanted over the murder of a friend of Gerry “The Monk” Hutch is arrested in Dubai

Leading Kinahan cartel member Sean McGovern has been arrested in Dubai in connection with the 2016 murder of a friend of Gerry “The Monk” Hutch.

UAE police arrested the Kinahan co-leader following an Interpol Red Notice and a European arrest warrant in connection with the fatal shooting of Noel Kirwan. It is currently unknown exactly what role McGovern, who was shot in the leg at the Regency Hotel in Dublin in 2016, played in his death.

Kirwan, 62 at the time of his death, was shot eight times in the head, chest and arms as he sat in his car with his partner outside his home in Clondalkin, Dublin, shortly before Christmas 2016.

He had just returned home from a Christmas dinner with his partner Bernadette Roe and their daughter.

He was killed as part of a “notorious feud” between the Hutch and Kinahan gangs, two feuding criminal factions, although he had no criminal links with either side.

His only criminal connection was a charge of possession of a firearm for intimidation in 1996, but local sources said shortly after his death that he had not been involved in crime for years.

Noel Kirwan (pictured left) was targeted because of his lifelong association with Gerry “The Monk” Hutch (pictured right).

Instead, it is believed he was targeted because of his lifelong association with Gerry “The Monk” Hutch, who he grew up with.

Kirwan, who also went by the nickname “Duck Egg”, was seen with The Monk at the funeral of Eddie Hutch, another gangland member.

Irish police warned him days after the funeral, which took place in early 2016, that his life was in danger.

He had set up a sophisticated CCTV system at his home in west Dublin, but it was not enough to prevent his murder.

Two days before his murder, gangland member Jason Keating attached a tracking device to Kirwan’s car. Although he was initially charged with murder, he took a special plea deal in which the full murder charge was dropped and replaced with a charge of aiding and abetting the commission of murder by a criminal organization.

For this he was sentenced to ten years in prison in 2018.

Leading Kinahan cartel member Sean McGovern has been arrested in connection with a 2016 murder in Dubai

McGovern is one of the top leaders of the Kinahan gang

Kirwan’s murder is one of 18 deaths linked to the Hutch-Kinahan feud.

The most infamous incident of the feud was McGovern being shot in the leg as six disguised men executed gangster David Byrne at the Regency Hotel in Dublin, before he fled in a van which was later set on fire.

Many witnesses wore helmets and carried high-powered assault rifles and jackets with “Gardai” written on the back. They said they thought the men were real police officers before the murder.

A witness who was at the hotel at the time of the attack told The Irish Sun that one of the killers, disguised as a woman, walked past him shortly before the shooting.

He said, “I saw a man dressed as a woman.” She walked past me but collided with me. I thought she was a transvestite. I didn’t know it was a man.’

Another witness told the Irish Independent that the two gunmen entered the building and began shooting – while two others, including the man dressed as a woman, cornered the escapees on the steps outside.

The witness explained: “I heard a man dressed as a woman saying, ‘He’s not here, I can’t find him.’ He was wearing a long blonde wig.

A Garda cordon outside the Regency Hotel in Dublin after a shooting at the hotel in 2016 left one man dead and two others injured

Two men dressed as police officers were seen entering the Regency Hotel in 2016 to kill David Byrne

During the 2016 Regency Hotel shooting, civilians ran for their lives

“The other guy yelled back, ‘Get out of here,’ just as the other two came through the front door and passed me and went to the silver van and they were all bundled into that van.”

Police sources told the newspaper it was clear the gunmen had planned to murder several members of Kinahan’s syndicate, describing it as “an unprecedented escalation of a feud that has now escalated into an all-out war.”

Gardai Chief Superintendent Barry O’Brien said it was a “particularly serious incident” in which “heavy weapons” were used.

A third witness told The Irish Sun: “They wore masks and helmets.” “The weapons were huge, just like the ones the IRA once used.”

Ireland’s Justice Minister Helen McEntee said she and the Justice Department agreed “Engaged closely with the Emirati Minister of Justice, His Excellency Abdullah Bin Sultan Bin Awad Al Nuaimi, on ongoing cooperation” on criminal justice matters.

She added that while she could not comment on the specific case, the Irish government was keen to sign extradition and mutual legal assistance agreements with the United Arab Emirates.