Dublin fugitive is arrested in Benidorm

POLICE in Benidorm in Spain have arrested a Dubliner on the run from authorities in the UK.

James Connors was described by Spanish police as the leader of a criminal organisation based in Britain which specialised in crimes including robbery and extortion.

The 43-year-old fugitive, who was on a UK Crimestoppers Most Wanted list, was held after police in Britain discovered he was enjoying a holiday in Spain, where authorities say he was born on August 15, 1975.

Britain’s National Crime Agency tipped off the authorities in Spain who arrested him on December 21 after tracking him down to the Costa Blanca resort of Benidorm.

Just over two years ago, three men named as James Patrick Connors, then 22, James Connors, then 40, and John Connors, then 25, were accused of being part of an organised crime gang responsible for a string of high-value breaks-ins and distraction burglaries carried out across the UK.

Crimestoppers said in a September 2016 appeal it was offering rewards of up to £2,000 for the arrest of each of the men.

Connors was accused of ‘high-value burglary offences and distraction burglaries targeting the elderly and the vulnerable’.

Officials in the UK were not able to confirm early yesterday that the man arrested in Benidorm was the man at the centre of the 2016 Crimestoppers appeal.

He will appear before a judge in court in Madrid for an extradition hearing.