Trevor O'Neill's murder was a terrible case of mistaken identity. | Archive

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In Costa de la Calma on August 17, 2016, Trevor O'Neill was shot four times in the back. He worked for Dublin town hall and was on holiday with his wife and three children aged five, seven and 12. He was murdered by a hooded hitman. It was a terrible case of mistaken identity. The target had been Jonathan Hutch.

Moments before he was murdered, he had met Jonathan Hutch in the street. Hutch was to later explain to the Guardia Civil that he knew Trevor O'Neill from the hotel where they were staying. There was no other association, and it was purely by chance that they had run into each other on the street just prior to the shooting.

The murder was meant to have been a reckoning between the Kinahan and Hutch clans - two families who had been fighting for years to control the drugs trade and other illicit businesses on the Costa del Sol and in Ireland.

Gerry Hutch is accused of having started a vendetta between the clans which has resulted in twenty deaths in Ireland and Spain. Originally, the two clans operated together. There was a dispute, and Gerry Hutch (known as The Monk) became the leader of the Hutch clan. This war escalated when one of his nephews, Gary Hutch, was murdered in La Cala de Mijas (Málaga), a killing blamed on the Kinahans.

Earlier in 2016, Gerry Hutch is alleged to have sent hitmen to the Regency Hotel in Dublin, where a boxing event weigh-in was taking place. Disguised as policemen, they murdered one of the Kinahans. Gerry Hutch then disappeared. The Gardaí in Ireland have been hunting for him ever since. Had been hunting. On August 12, the Guardia Civil became aware that he and his wife would be in a restaurant in Fuengirola. He was arrested and is in custody.