Gerry “The Monk” Hutch was arrested in his Spanish bolthole yesterday when undercover cops swooped on the Costa del Sol.
Police, working with gardai from Dublin, jumped on the 58-year-old gang boss in the Fuengirola area at around 4pm as he headed for a stroll in the sunshine.
A source told Dublin Live: “He’s in custody. He was walking down a street, not far away from where he disappeared in April. He got away that time –this time the Spanish and the gardai weren’t going to be given the slip.”
Hutch had been under close surveillance for a week before cops decided to lift him.
The former crime lord had been watched by Spanish police in the same area in late April, after arriving from Lanzarote, before he went to ground when news of the European Arrest Warrant leaked.
Dublin Live learned last night senior garda detectives from the Serious and Organised Crime section led the manhunt.
The source added: “The Spanish put a lot of resources into this.
"A lot of time and effort, and so did the gardai. The arrest of Gerard Hutch is a major result for the joint Garda-Spanish international operation and for the Serious and Organised Crime detectives.”
Hutch is wanted by gardai over the murder of David Byrne during the Regency Hotel attack in February 2016.
It took place at a boxing event and was revenge for his nephew Gary Hutch’s murder in Spain.
Byrne’s killing escalated the Kinahan-Hutch feud which has so far claimed 18 lives.
Cartel boss Daniel Kinahan, who was in the hotel at the time, was the target of the hit but he managed to flee.
Investigators from Ballymun Garda station, after a lengthy probe, sent a file to the DPP and they applied for a warrant.
Veteran criminal Hutch will be sent to Madrid to be extradited. There, the process will be explained and he will be given the option of consenting to extradition and he would be returned to Ireland for trial.
But if, as is likely, he rejects consent to it, he’ll be given lawyers and will appear before a Spanish High Court.
The whole process could take six months, with Hutch on remand in jail.
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