INTERNATIONAL HITMAN IMRE Arakas has been extradited to Lithuania in connection with the shooting of a pop star’s lover.

Earlier today, gardaí surrendered the Estonian national to the Lithuanian authorities at Dublin Airport.

Arakas was extradited on foot of a European Arrest Warrant issued by Lithuanian authorities in relation to the shooting of Deimantas Bugavicius in November 2015.

Ireland’s High Court ruled in November that he was to be surrendered to Lithuaina to face trial over the allegation that he supplied guns to an organised gang in the murder of a Lithuanian pop star’s lover.

Gardaí issued a statement following the extradition: “Earlier today, 4th January 2022, members of the Garda Extradition Unit, Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, surrendered an Estonian male (60s) to the Lithuanian authorities at Dublin Airport.

“The male was extradited on foot of a European Arrest Warrant issued by the Lithuanian authorities in relation to an incident in November 2015.”

Arakas (63), whose last address was in Sopruse, Tallinn, Estonia, is wanted to face charges which include a count of murder as well as firearms and conspiracy-related charges in relation to the shooting of Bugavicius in November 2015.

An eyewitness to the murder of the pop star’s lover has said that the hitman, who has also been jailed here for his role in a Kinahan cartel murder plot, was not present at the scene. Arakas told gardai that he was in Spain on the relevant dates.

However, Lithuanian authorities allege that Arakas was part of a three-man gang that conspired to murder Mr Bugavicius, who was alleged to have had an affair with pop star Vita Jakutiene.

The ex-wrestler was jailed by the Special Criminal Court here for six years in December 2018, after he admitted to conspiring with others to murder James ‘Mago’ Gately in Northern Ireland between April 3 and 4, 2017. He has since completed that sentence but was remanded in custody pending his extradition.

The Special Criminal Court heard that Arakas was a member of the Estonian Defence League in the 1990s and was involved in the separatist movement from the USSR. The married father of two had been “scarred and marked deeply” by imprisonment in Russia, the court also heard.

He has previous convictions which include causing deliberate bodily harm, escaping from prison and unlawful handling of firearms.