The Guardia Civil has arrested in Lanzarote the Irish citizen G.F.V, 38 years old and with an International Arrest Warrant in force issued by the British authorities.
The detainee is being investigated in that country for the introduction of large shipments of cocaine and for money laundering. This person was a member of the criminal organization led by Thomas Kavanagh, a confidant of the Kinahan Clan in the United Kingdom, working on several occasions on their behalf in terms of organized crime.
In the month of July the trial was held in the United Kingdom and he did not appear, doing so only electronically. The reason he claimed was that it was impossible for him to take a PCR test in time. For that reason, the British judge decided to issue an arrest warrant.
The arrest is the result of the collaboration between the Guardia Civil and the British NCA (National Crime Agency), which informed the Fugitives from Justice Team of the Central Operative Unit of the Guardia Civil of the possible whereabouts of the now detained, as well as the imminent activation of the aforementioned arrest warrant.
Once the operation began, agents of the Fugitives Team located G.F.V on the island of Lanzarote, specifically in a house in the municipality of La Asomada, where he had resided since 2017 and ran a recreational boat rental business with his wife.
The arrest took place this Wednesday on the terrace of a bar near his place of residence, when the agents, after several hours of discreet monitoring of both him and his immediate environment, considered the ideal time to act safely. In the arrest, together with the Fugitives Team, uniformed members of the Command of the Civil Guard of Las Palmas participated.
Thomas Kavanagh
The detainee's boss, Thomas Kavanagh, is serving a three-year sentence imposed last year for possessing an electric stun gun disguised as a flashlight. In addition, he is awaiting sentencing for the same acts that are imputed to the detainee in Lanzarote.
Kavanagh is considered the most important representative of the Kinahan organized crime group in the United Kingdom. He coordinated his activities from a safe mansion, with bulletproof glass, near Birmingham. In addition, he is the brother-in-law of David Byrne, who was shot dead in the 2016 shooting at the Regency Hotel in Dublin.
This important arrest adds to the one carried out by the UCO Fugitives from Justice Team last August on Gerry Hutch, known as "The Monk", leader of the Hutch clan, and recognized rival of the Kinahan in the fight for control of organized crime in the Irish Republic. This clash between clans is known in Ireland as 'Kinahan - Hutch feud'.
The detainee has been placed at the disposal of the Central Court of Instruction Number 6 of the National Court, which has ordered his imprisonment pending his extradition to the United Kingdom.
