Armed officers held the Irishman after storming his room as he was fast asleep beside an unidentified woman at the hotel in the Costa Dorada resort of Salou 60 miles south of Barcelona.
Footage released by police showed the elite team - carrying semi-automatic weapons with flashlights on them - running into the room after getting radio orders to strike as colleagues went in through a back terrace.
They can be heard shouting in Spanish, 'Las Manos, Las Manos' - English for 'Hands up, hands up' before yelling in English, 'Don't Move'. The 34-year-old Irishman, wanted on weapons and drugs charges, appeared to be asleep at the time although the television in his hotel room was still on.
The fugitive, also a suspect in the 2010 murder of gang boss Eamon 'The Don' Dunne who cannot be named for legal reasons, was driven to Madrid after his arrest for an extradition hearing. It was not immediately clear today if he had consented to extradition or opposed his forced return to Ireland at the behind-closed-doors hearing.
The hotel where the arrest took place has not been named.
Today Spanish police revealed they had come close to catching the wanted 'major league' gangster in November last year at Malaga airport. He escaped after crossing a busy motorway as officers closed in on him when he went to meet relatives arriving from Ireland.
The European Arrest Warrant was issued after two guns and cocaine were found in his car during a 2013 search.
He is also understood to be facing serious charges over the gunning down of Eamon Dunne at a friend's birthday party at a pub in Cabra, Dublin in April 2010 in what was described at the time as 'a perfect hit.'
The gangland boss was sitting on a bar stool when his killer calmly walked in and told other terrified customers to 'get on the floor' before blasting his victim with two shots to the head and three others to vital organs.
No comments:
Post a Comment