Sources have told the ECHO that the Alicante area is believed to be a hotspot for Irish and British drugs gangs
Orihuela Costa, Alicante, Spain(Image: Google Maps)
Two recent shootings in Spain are believed to be linked to Irish gangsters “targeting” British rivals, sources have said. Bootle man Sonny Redmond, 32, cheated death when a gunman sprayed more than a dozen bullets at his vehicle during a botched assassination attempt in Orihuela Costa on December 11 last year.
A second man was found dead in a housing development in the Campoamor area of Alicante in Costa Blanca on December 21 with his body displaying several bullet wounds. The ECHO has been told that the two shootings, just minutes away from each other, are believed to be linked.
And two local sources in Spain have told the ECHO that “most of the local chatter is about the Irish boys”. The Veja Baja area of Alicante is believed to be a hotspot for Irish and British drugs gangs. The source said those involved are said to be “people known already to the police but not the super players, more low level gangs”.
A second source said: “It’s been quite violent up that way for a while, mainly Irish gangs”. They added that gangs in Costa Blanca were all too willing to “target” rivals using guns.
A source told The ECHO that the Costa Blanca is “an area with an incredibly high rate of burglaries and I think that sort of crime has been increasing, which ex-pat communities seem more bothered about than murders”.
Southern Spain is colloquially referred to as the “Costa del Crime” due to the high number of organised crime groups who use its shores as a centre of operations. British and Irish gangs battle with cartels from South America, Turkey and Eastern Europe to gain a foothold.
Shootings involving ex-pat criminals lured to Spain by the prospects of sun, sea and illicit opportunity are not a rarity and local politicians in the Costa del Sol area publicly asked for more help to tackle the firearms threat.
After two Scottish gangsters were shot dead while watching a televised football match at a bar in Fuengirola on May 31, the local mayor said: “We live in a world and at a time where crime knows no borders” and asked for specialised police officers to be deployed to the area.
Spain’s hard-right Vox Party has said the country has failed to stop the series of gangland hits in tourist hotspots. The Times previously reported the party had called for the expulsion of all foreign criminals.
Redmond is said to have been hit in the arm, leg and chest when his car was peppered with over a dozen bullets in an underground car park. He is believed to still be in a serious condition in an intensive care unit.
He was identified in the Spanish press as being one of two British men arrested and still being investigated over an armed robbery at a cannabis club last year. He is said to have been allowed to leave prison on bail in November, around seven months after he was arrested and held in custody.
Regarding the murder on December 21, a spokesperson for the Spanish Civil Guard said: “On the night of December 21st, the Civil Guard received a phone call reporting the discovery of a body with clear signs of violent death inside a house located in the municipality of Campoamor-Orihuela.
“The victim is a 29-year-old British man. The Homicide Unit of the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Alicante Command has taken charge of the investigation. The Orihuela Court of Instruction has sealed the proceedings.”
The December shootings follow a number of other gun-related incidents from earlier this year with suspected links to Merseyside. Bootle man Steven Gray, 32, was fatally shot “in the back” in the British holiday resort of Calahonda in Spain on Easter Monday. A burned-out car with two fire-damaged firearms inside was found a short while later.
And Merseyside man Michael Terrence Riley, 44 and of Huyton but formerly Bootle, has been extradited to Spain to stand trial accused of the murders of the Scottish gangsters gunned down in Fuengirola – Eddie Lyons Jnr and Ross Monaghan.