ARMED gardai will be on alert this morning as gangster Gerard 'Hatchet' Kavanagh is buried in west Dublin.
The force's Emergency Response Unit are on stand-by for the service, which is expected to be attended by a number of major gangland figures.
Kavanagh (44) was gunned down in a ruthless assassination while he was at an Irish bar in upmarket Elviria, near Marbella, Spain.
He was a senior member and enforcer for the Christy Kinahan international crime syndicate.
Friends and family of the gangster will gather at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Mourne Road at 11.30am for the funeral Mass today, and Kavanagh will be buried afterwards in Palmerstown cemetery.
It is understood they will socialise later at a boxing club in the Rialto area.
Kavanagh's body was flown back from Spain to the family home in Mourne Road on Friday. The casket carrying his remains was so large that the front window of the house had to be taken out.
Kavanagh (above) was shot nine times by two masked men as he sipped a beer at Harmon's Irish bar.
