Irish crime boss ‘The Monk’ arrested in Spain

Spanish police said on Tuesday they had arrested the fugitive leader of an Irish organised crime group who is wanted in Ireland for murder.

Officers arrested Gerry Hutch, also known as “The Monk”, on Thursday at a restaurant in Fuengirola on Spain’s southern Costa del Sol, where he was living, Spanish police said in a statement.

The 58-year-old had been living in the centre of Fuengirola where he “relied on a logistics network which supplied him with everything he needed without having to leave his hiding place”, the statement added.

Described by Spanish police as one of Ireland’s “most dangerous criminals”, he is wanted for the murder in 2016 of a member of a rival organised crime group during a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel in Dublin.

Irish authorities believe the Regency attack was carried out by the Hutch organised crime group in retaliation for the murder of Hutch’s nephew Gary Hutch in Mijas on the Costa del Sol in 2015.

According to the police statement, the “fierce war” between the two gangs has resulted in “close to 20 dead” both in Ireland and in Spain.

Hutch left Ireland soon after the Regency attack and he is believed to have lived for a while on Spain’s Canary Islands before moving earlier this year to Fuengirola.