Imogen Calderwood
By Imogen Calderwood
NOTORIOUS Irish gangster Gerard ‘the Hatchet’ Kavanagh has been gunned down in the Elviria shopping centre, on the outskirts of Marbella.
Two armed men burst into Harmon’s Irish Bar around 5.30pm yesterday, shooting Kavanagh, 44, up to nine times in the back and arms and killing him on the spot.
The busy square – which has four bars and four restaurants – was full of locals and tourists alike as the dining complex was just finishing lunch service.
Witnesses described the scene as an ‘execution’, with the victim being shot down by the gunmen – who were dressed ‘head to toe’ in black and wearing balaclavas – as he attempted to escape.
A witness said: “It had all the hallmarks of a professional hit.”
Stray bullets flew across the square – that was filled with more than a hundred punters at the time of the shooting – with one leaving a bullet in the car of a neighbouring restaurateur.
“It caused pandemonium and terror,” said a British expat, 55, who lives in Elviria and was eating at one of the neighbouring restaurants when the shooting took place.
The witness added that just minutes after the shooting a nearby car exploded.
Police discovered a burnt out BMW X3 nearby shortly after the shooting, and are currently combing the car to find out if it was used as a getaway vehicle.
One 58-year-old British resident of nearby Calahonda added: “It’s really a miracle no-one was hurt. There were tourists at all the restaurants in the square, and bullets were flying all over the place.”
Police and forensic teams had screened off Harmon’s Irish bar, which is located in a corner of the square, but several British families were eating dinner in the restaurants surrounding.
The victim’s black Audi 4×4 remained opposite the restaurant, sectioned off from the main square with police tape.
The gangster, from the Crumlin area of Dublin, has been linked to the Christy Kinahan cartel, and has convictions for selling heroin.
Nicknamed ‘the Hatchet’, he was well-known in west Dublin as a violent criminal, responsible for the collection of drug debts.
It is believed the murder is linked to the Estepona shooting of boxing champion Jamie Moore last month, with early reports suggesting Kavanagh was the intended victim of the attack on Jamie Moore.
Dave Harmon, the owner of the Irish bar, is a massive boxing fan and Jamie Kavanagh and Matthew Maklin are both tagged on his Twitter feed.
Such nice people frequenting Marbella these days.
What, is this typical of the kind of people ‘frequenting’ Marbella these days?
Just another STUPID comment by Fred.
First to comment, as if we’re all waiting for his deluded words of wisdom every time an article is posted.
It’s not Marbella, these types of things happen in Elviria. The place is a toilet and is full of dodgy characters.
No loss to society.
Everyone should be grateful that given this particular area is popular, no innocent bystanders were injured.
@Derek, and you are always second to post it seems. Is anyone forcing you to read and post messages? No. So chillax. You should be out enjoying your Sunday, but instead here you are monitoring this blog for my posts.
Fred you muppet! And Steve remind me of the times it happens in Elviria!
Iv being going to elvira for 14 yrs and the amount of gangsters that used to be walking around was scary. Its died down the past few yrs but iv actually met kavanagh in harmons a couple of times talk about scary. Regular man in the bar…
Derek: How come YOU didn’t know what Steve knew? Missed out there mush.
Why don’t the Army come out and take all these people out in Ireland and Spain and all other Countries. They can check the Sunday World or whatever paper has them splashed on the Front page, if they are too thick to know who they are. If I was made Minister of Defence, I would have all Drug Problem, Robbery, Gangster Problems, etc. Cleared up in Six Months.
Will they catch the murderers? Doubt it very much. Pretty much do what you want here…
i would like to know thge nationality of the hitmen but i have som slihgt idea
when Franco was in charge these things did not happen the BIS SOCIAL SQUAD AND THE BIC bureau of criminal investigation , knew how to handle this, 5 murders in 15 years in the whole country
@LUISMI, what about the thousands of people that the Franco regime murdered? Duh. Btw, did you know that you make the same spelling errors as my mate kb lol.
Yes Luismi and when Hitler was in charge, the trains ran on time and Guernica was made to behave itself…
to FReddy krueger whatever happend in Spain is not your concern but I suppose the hunchbacked never see his own hump but his neighbour,s why dont we talk about that Harris who assasinated over 50000 thousand in Dresden out of spite ?
and Freddy , do not forget to do Guadarrama and the biggest contruction of the 20th century in Europe , the valley of the fallen, thus you will realize how dwarfish all your landmarked and listed monuments like Big beng , big? are in comparison
@LUISMI/whoever, I notice that you want to quickly take the conversation off-topic and instead turn it into an anti-Brit rant because your original comment was so ridiculous that it could only come from the mind of a simpleton. What happened in Spain under Franco, and by others elsewhere, is everyone’s concern. Now run along child.
What an absurd persona is this latest incarnation.