The Irish criminal Gerry Hutch, known as The Monk, has been arrested in a large-scale operation by the Civil Guard against organized crime in the early hours of Wednesday in Lanzarote, as La Voz has been able to confirm.
In addition, on Thursday morning at 11.30 am, searches have been carried out in several homes in Lanzarote, the peninsula and also in Ireland. At the moment, the number of people arrested is not known as the proceedings are under seal, although according to this editorial team, it would be around nine people of Irish origin.
Hutch has been living between Lanzarote and Dublin, and has even acquired properties on the island, where he has been living intermittently since 2012.
The newspaper The Irish Times reports that the police operation carried out in Arrecife, Puerto del Carmen and Playa Blanca since 4.00 am this past Wednesday, is investigating a suspected case of money laundering. In addition, it adds that Irish agents traveled to Lanzarote to support the operation of the Benemérita.
Sources from the Civil Guard assure La Voz that the case is under seal and that the details cannot be revealed at the moment. However, according to the Communication Office of the Court, the detainees will appear in court in the coming days for crimes related to drug trafficking and human trafficking.
It is not the first time that Gerry Hutch has been arrested in Spain, as in 2021 he was arrested in the Malaga city of Fuengirola by an international arrest warrant, as he was wanted by the justice of his country for the murder of David Byrne in a hotel in Ireland. Of the crime that was attributed to him then, a case in which he was being tried for murder, he was acquitted a year ago.
The Hutch have been disputing power for years with the criminal organization Kinahan, one of the most powerful in the world and to which Gerry Hutch himself belonged. This fight between the two clans, which Kinahan ended up winning, led to the death of more than twenty people after in 2015 a young Irish mobster from the Hutch was murdered next to the pool of his urbanization in Mijas (Málaga).
As reported this past Wednesday by La Voz, fifty agents from Tenerife and Aragon intervened in Arrecife, Puerto del Carmen and Playa Blanca in an operation against organized crime. From 4.00 am the agents were deployed and carried out different arrests and searches.
