Gerry Hutch due in court as part of wider probe into drug and human ...
Hutch was arrested in Lanzarote as part of an investigation into money laundering activities.It is unclear what charges the Monk will face as part of the probe.
Spanish officials have confirmed veteran Irish criminal Gerard ‘The Monk’ Hutch has been arrested following reports of an international police operation into money laundering.
And they say the 61-year-old head of the Hutch family and a “group of people” held alongside him will be brought before the courts this week.
While the probe involved “crimes allegedly related to drug trafficking and human trafficking”, it is unclear what charges The Monk will face as part of the probe.
Spanish police and court officials had yet to make any official statement following gardaí confirmation yesterday of searches in Spain and Ireland targeting a “transnational crime group suspected to be involved in money laundering".
At least 10 searches were conducted in Spain, including Lanzarote where Hutch spends much of his time.
The Dublin home of Hutch in the Clontarf area was also raided yesterday morning.
A court in Lanzarote is conducting an ongoing investigation.
A press spokesman for the Canary Islands' High Court of Justice said today: “With regards to the alleged international gang arrested in Lanzarote yesterday (Oct 23) the duty court in the Lanzarote capital Arrecife, which is Court of Investigation Number Two, confirms that searches have been carried out in homes in Lanzarote, on the mainland and in Ireland and that a group of people whose number has not been determined have been arrested.
“Among them are an Irish citizen identified in the international press as The Monk.
“The proceedings are secret and in the next few days they will be brought before the courts for crimes allegedly related to drug trafficking and human trafficking.
“Their judicial status will be made public if approved by the relevant judicial authority when this occurs.”
Gerry Hutch outside his home previously
Those initial court hearings will be held in private as is normal in Spain. Only trials are held in public.
Several searches are known to have taken place in Lanzarote yesterday from dawn onwards.
Well-placed Spanish sources described it initially as an operation to “neutralise organised crime” but did not say who it was targeting.
A secrecy order, called a ‘secreto de sumario’ in Spanish, was slapped on the ongoing probe by a judge in Arrecife who is in charge of the judicialised case. Such orders prevent public officials from making detailed public comment.
They are often placed on criminal probes, especially in their infancy, and prevent even defence lawyers and prosecuting attorneys from accessing case files.
Reports in the Canary Islands say around 50 officers from Tenerife and Aragon in mainland Spain targeted several locations in Arrecife as well as Puerto del Carmen and Playa Blanca.
Today's News in 90 Seconds - October 24th
Three vehicles were said to have been immobilised near the five-star Arrecife Gran Hotel & Spa around 7am yesterday. The number plates on the cars were covered with cardboard with a strip of Civil Guard tape on them. One of the vehicles was a blue BMW and the other a Ford
Many of the raids reportedly took place before dawn.
While it comes less than a week after reports that Gerry Hutch was considering running for the Dáil, the Spanish investigation has been ongoing for over two years.
In June 2022, an associate of the Hutch gang was targeted during a search operations in Lanzarote.
Last year, the Monk walked free from the Special Criminal Court after being cleared of the murder of Kinahan associate David Byrne at the Regency Hotel in Dublin in 2016.
The Hutch organised crime group has previously been described in the Special Criminal Court as less hierarchal than other crime groups and operating a patriarchal system.
It was involved in a feud with the Kinahan crime gang which claimed 18 lives over a three-year period between 2015 and 2018.
