AN IRISH gang member with links to the Dublin-based ‘The Family’ crime organisation has been arrested during an Alicante Province drugs raid.
Details about the Guardia Civil operation have been scant except that a 33-year-old man was detained last week at an undisclosed location and faces drug and gun charges.
It’s believed that Irish police were involved with the Guardia to secure the man’s arrest.
Reports suggested the suspect moved to Spain around three years ago.
He built links with a number of organised crime networks there and was allegedly involved in importing drugs into Ireland.
It is believed that he feared he would be assassinated by rival criminals and was actually warned about that by the police in Ireland.
The suspect has been involved in criminal activities since he was in his teens and is said to be ‘extremely violent’.
The man’s former boss travelled to the Alicante area recently for a meeting with his former protege as he felt ‘he was getting too big for his boots’.
The detainee though gave his former boss a ‘severe hiding’, according to reports from Ireland.
The 33-year-old was a suspect in the murder of Christy Daly, who was shot nine times with a machine gun in Ireland nearly 11 years ago.
Daly found a €30,000 stash of drugs belonging to a gang on a country lane in County Offaly.
Irish police said they had intelligence that associates of the suspect were hiring out a machine gun to other gangs.
The weapon used to kill Daly had been used in other attacks.
