The National High Court (AN) has agreed to the execution of the European Arrest Warrant (OEDE) to the authorities of Ireland of the citizen G. S. from that country, arrested in April of this year in the town of Tías, accused of belonging to a criminal organization, so that he can be tried.
Ireland justifies its request by suspicions that the accused would have participated while residing in Lanzarote in activities such as using the services of a retired agent to obtain confidential information about criminal investigations affecting the group, at the request of his father.
He is also accused that from April 2016 to September 2021, when he already resided in the Canary Islands, he continued to participate in the organization's activities, and it is recalled that on this last date he changed his name.
The arrest occurred in less than 24 hours after the alert was issued within the framework of the European Network of Active Search Teams for Fugitives (ENFAST), for reasons including being considered responsible for directing money movements together with his father.
The accused appealed this decision and requested a trial to determine if the provisional detention order was correct, to which the Prosecutor's Office and the AN opposed, considering that the request made no sense and would delay the resolution of the proceedings.
The detainee maintained that the authorities of the Republic of Ireland did not provide prior and formal notification of the criminal charges nor the origin of the warrant, which deprived him of the ability to exercise his defense, and that when the events occurred he was residing in Lanzarote.
He also alleged the existence of a prior criminal proceeding for the same alleged crimes that would be processed in a Court of Lanzarote, for which the instruction corresponds exclusively to the Spanish jurisdiction.
The AN's response is that prior notification is not mandatory under European regulations and that it will be after the handover that the requested person will be able to exercise his defense in accordance with Irish laws, and that furthermore, in Spain he had legal assistance.
The AN considers that the fact that the crimes were committed from Lanzarote, "does not imply that the Irish courts are not competent for the trial" as they were not executed in whole or in part in Spain, which would have been grounds for rejecting the order.
"The disclosure of confidential information and its use in favor of a criminal organization would have occurred in Ireland, with the requested person collaborating, as one of the members of the criminal organization, remotely from Spain," adds the order.
The preliminary investigation opened in Lanzarote, to which the defense of the accused refers, are not the same facts, which would also have been a reason for not proceeding with the handover of the requested person.
After becoming aware of his possible presence in Spain, the agents initiated a search operation for him, which was carried out in conjunction with members of the Irish Garda who had traveled expressly to Spain.
The Hutch criminal organization is built on family ties in Dublin, being allegedly involved in several serious criminal activities, especially due to its great rivalry with the Kinahans, according to police information issued in April.
The detainee would be the trusted person of the gang leader, arrested in Lanzarote at the end of 2024 and awaiting trial for an alleged money laundering offense in Spain.
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