Moment Kinahan thug was cuffed on hols isle
Drug smuggler enjoying drinks on terrace when cops swooped
THIS is the moment police captured a senior associate of the Kinahan cartel near his Lanzarote bolthole.
Gary Vickery, 38, was filmed being handcuffed moments after his arrest at a bar on the sunshine island as he was led away to a police car.
It emerged yesterday afternoon that the self-confessed drugs criminal, a partner-in-crime of Kinahan cartel boss Thomas “Bomber” Kavanagh, is expected to be extradited to the UK within days.
It is believed he appeared before a judge via video-link. A well-placed source at the Audiencia Nacional court in Madrid said: “He was remanded in prison pending extradition after consenting to being returned to the UK.”
The arrest was carried out by the same elite Civil Guard unit that detained Gerry “The Monk” Hutch in a Costa del Sol restaurant in August, with the force yesterday releasing video footage of the operation.
The same officers who ended Hutch’s life on the run were filmed walking up to Vickery as he sat drinking at a table wearing blue shorts and T-shirt, flip flops and a Hugo Boss baseball cap.
He seemed to offer no resistance as he was led away by cops and at one point appeared to engage in a brief conversation with them beside a patrol car before he had handcuffs put on and was taken to a nearby police station. An insider said Vickery was with his son and daughter when he was detained.
He added: “His partner was also around but said she didn’t have any idea of what the situation was with her husband in the UK and the fact that he was a wanted man there.
“He lived in a nice house in the municipality of La
Asomada and was very well-integrated in the local community. He had his business in the municipality of Tias.”
In their first official comment about Wednesday’s detention, the police said in a statement early yesterday – identifying Vickery only by his initials as is normal in Spain: “The Civil Guard has held Irish national GFV, aged 38, on an International Arrest Warrant issued by the British authorities.
“The arrested man has been investigated over the smuggling of large quantities of cocaine as well as money laundering.
“This person was a member of the criminal gang led by Thomas Kavanagh, the right-hand man of the Kinahan clan in the UK, where he worked on several occasions in their name with regards to organised crime.
“The trial took place in July and he didn’t appear in person, doing so only
online. He claimed it had been impossible for him to do a PCR Covid test in time. The judge decided as a result to issue an arrest warrant.
“The arrest occurred on the terrace of a bar near to his place of residence when officers moved in when they felt it was the perfect moment to act safely after watching the target and his close circle.”
Vickery had previously pleaded guilty to having a prime role in conspiring to import class A and B drugs into the UK.
The large-scale shipments were worth more than €27.2million. Vickery also admitted to laundering the Kinahan cartel’s cash.
Thomas Kavanagh, 53, and Daniel Canning, 41, are facing up to 20 years in jail after pleading guilty last June to conspiring to smuggle millions of euro worth of illegal drugs from Europe into the UK.
Canning was arrested in August after flying into London but Vickery failed to leave his Lanzarote bolthole and show up at Ipswich Crown Court.
The case was adjourned until later this year but the arrest warrant was issued in the meantime.