LAST UPDATE | 25 Oct

GERARD “THE MONK” Hutch has appeared in a court on the island of Lanzarote charged with a number of organised crime offences.

Sources have said that the charges follow a two year investigation by the Spanish Guardia Civil.

Gerry Hutch was arrested in raids across Lanzarote, Spain and Ireland targeting the Hutch Organised Crime Group on Wednesday.

The people arrested in the operation with Hutch have been described by sources as “close associates and business partners”.

The Canary Islands’ High Court said in a statement, released with the investigating judge’s authorisation, tonight: “The duty court in Arrecife, Court of Investigation Number Two, has today taken statements from nine people as alleged members of a gang of international criminals, who are being investigated as the alleged perpetrators of crimes of money laundering committed within the scope of a criminal organisation.

“The investigating magistrate has ordered the incarceration on remand without bail of the two alleged ringleaders and has ordered the provisional release of the other seven.

“The investigation continues, it is not closed, and the proceedings have been declared secret. This is absolutely everything we are authorised to communicate.”

The Spanish police, led by a prosecuting judge, are investigating offences that range from drug trafficking, people trafficking, money laundering and other offences with organised crime. 

The Dublin search was at his north Dublin home in Clontarf. 

A statement from gardaí on Wednesday said the operation was targeting transnational organised crime group suspected to be involved in money laundering across a number of jurisdictions.

An officer from the Guardia Civil was in attendance at the search in Dublin, along with personnel from the Criminal Assets Bureau and Emergency Response Unit.

It is understood that gardaí have fed intelligence and some evidence into that probe. Sources have said the raids in Spain and here in Ireland were focused on obtaining documents and other evidence.

The Spanish police and gardaí have been unable to confirm the operations and the arrests as the investigating judge or magistrate has sealed the documents ahead of the court appearance. 

The Monk was recently videoed in a Lanzarote pub singing the Fields of Athenry – he has been spending much of his time on the island since his acquittal for the murder of David Byrne.

The gardaí are continuing their investigations into the activities of the Hutch and the Kinahan Organised Crime Groups.

A source has described recent international operations against both groupings as the beginning of an “end game scenario”.