Irish mafia boss hauled before court in Spain

GANGLAND boss Christy Kinahan was last night set to be hauled before a Spanish judge investigating his alleged international mafia empire.

Police launched a massive security operation at a Costa del Sol court as they prepared for the arrival of Kinahan, aged 53, and alleged right-hand man John Cunningham, aged 58.

Heavily armed officers imposed a ring of steel around the building in Estepona as judge Maria Carmen Gutierrez Henares grilled the 22 suspects arrested in police raids.

They barricaded off the road in the seaside town as officers from the elite Special Operations Security Group, dressed in black and armed with machine guns, kept watch.

Kinahan, from Dublin and dubbed the Dapper Don, is suspected of masterminding a global crime network involved in drug trafficking, arms dealing and money-laundering.

He was arrested at his villa on the Costa del Sol at dawn on Tuesday, one of 32 people held in a series of raids in Spain, Ireland and Britain involving 750 police officers.

Judge Gutierrez Henares began questioning those under arrest at the Court of Instruction number 3 in Estepona on Thursday evening.

Sitting until 11pm, she grilled eight detainees before naming them all formal suspects in the investigation, a halfway stage towards formal charges that does not exist in Irish law.

She released six of them on bail and remanded two others in custody on Thursday night.

A statement released yesterday morning by Andalusia’s higher court of justice said: “The court of the first instance and instruction number 3 in Estepona took statements on Thursday from eight people in relation to the operation against the Irish mafia.

“Six of them were released on bail with the obligation to appear on the first and 15th day of each month. They are being formally investigated for money-laundering, drug-trafficking and falsifying documents, along with other alleged offences. The court extended the detention of the other two people.”

Yesterday morning, she began to question the remaining 14 people arrested.

All the court hearings took place behind closed doors with no access for the press or public, and a secrecy order prevents officials from revealing what was said in court.

Each suspect was grilled by the judge in the presence of their lawyer and, if necessary, a court-appointed interpreter. The judge then decided whether to release them without further action, release them on bail, or remand them into custody while the probe continues.

Formal charges are usually only laid in Spain shortly before a trial, and suspects for certain crimes can be held for up to four years without being charged.

Sources at the Estepona court said the chief suspects would be last to appear before the judge. The building has only two cells, capable of holding a total of three suspects at a time, so they were being brought to court in groups of three or fewer.

A lawyer acting for one suspect, who declined to give his name, said: “The suspects were brought to court three by three because there are only two cells in the building, one holding two people and the other holding one.

“The judge takes statements from them individually.”