CONVICTED DRUG DEALER John Gilligan and his son have been arrested by police in Spain.

The 68-year-0ld was arrested alongside two other men, one believed to be his son, in the Alicante area.

It is not yet known why the three men are being detained. 

This arrest comes a year after a case against Gilligan, who was arrested with more than €20,000 on criminal property charges, was dismissed. He was stopped at Belfast International Airport with €22,280 in cash as he was about to board a flight to Alicante in Spain.

Prosecutors argued that he intended to purchase a prescription drug in Spain for distribution on the Irish drugs market. His defence said it was a tenuous case.

Gilligan was acquitted of the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin in 2001, but was sentenced to 28 years in prison for drug trafficking that same year.

He was released from Portlaoise Prison in 2013. An attempt was made on his life just weeks later when a gunman entered a pub close to where Gilligan was drinking. Gilligan later dismissed the attempt as a “Halloween prank”.

In 2014 another attempt on his life was made when he was shot four times as he attended a family christening in Clondalkin. After being discharged from hospital, Gilligan was pictured boarding a ferry to the UK.

With reporting from Garreth MacNamee