Gerry Hutch, the man named in court as the leader of the Hutch crime gang, has appeared before a judge in Lanzarote, along with eight other people, to give a âstatementâ as part of a gang-related money laundering investigation.
All nine people who were brought before the court were detained during searches on Wednesday, with Hutch (61) taken into custody from his home in Lanzarote. His house in Clontarf, north Dublin, was also searched by gardaà at the same time on foot of a request for assistance from the Spanish police.
The investigation into people who are alleged to be members of an international gang involved in money laundering is being carried out by the Guardia Civil police force. The inquiry is led by a judge, as is common under the Spanish criminal justice system.
Hutch appeared in court in Arrecife, with the hearing held in private due to a secrecy ruling put in place over the wider investigation by the presiding judge.
However, in a statement issued to The Irish Times on Friday night, the general council of the judiciary confirmed the hearing had taken place.
âThe judicial authority on duty in the Arrecife judicial district of Lanzarote has taken statements today from nine people as alleged members of a gang of international criminals, who are being investigated as alleged perpetrators of money laundering crimes committed within the scope of a criminal organisation,â it said.
âThe investigating magistrate has ordered the provisional imprisonment, communicated and without bail of its two leaders, and has decreed provisional release with charges and precautionary measures for the other seven. The investigation continues, it is not closed, and the proceedings are declared secret.â
The council said it had no further comment to make on the case as it was not âauthorised to communicateâ any further details, due to the restrictions imposed on the release of information. It was not immediately clear late on Friday if Mr Hutch was one of those freed on bail.
He faced the court alongside a close associate from Dublin. Some of the others under investigation are from Spain and the United Kingdom.
In 2019, in evidence by the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) to the High Court â in a case against gang leader Liam Byrne â Mr Hutch was identified as leading what the bureau described as âthe Hutch organised crime groupâ in Dublin. In the same evidence, he was named as a key protagonist on one side of the Kinahan-Hutch feud, with Byrne, Daniel Kinahan, and Freddie Thompson on the opposing side.
Mr Hutch has been linked to multimillion armed robberies in the 1980s and 1990s. He previously settled with Cab after a judgment of almost £2 million.
He was arrested in Fuengirola in 2021 to be extradited to the Republic to face a charge of murdering David Byrne (34) at the Regency Hotel in Dublin in 2016. However, he was acquitted by the Special Criminal Court last year and since then has divided his time between Dublin and Lanzarote.
