Scottish gangsters shot dead in Costa del Sol bar were killed by 'rival gang hitman' apprehended in UK 'before fleeing to tax haven paradise island' - as Spanish cops detail his 'elaborate escape plan'
Police Scotland had insisted days after the May 31 double murder they had no information to suggest the horror crimes were in any way linked to the gang feuding which has been going on there.
But Malaga-based Spanish police chief Pedro Agudo Novo today described the suspected killer arrested in Liverpool last Friday as a member of the Daniels gang which has long been at loggerheads with the Lyons gang the dead men belonged to.
The suspect has not been formally named by Spanish police although they confirmed today he is 'English and not Scottish', has been remanded in custody after a first court appearance as Spain continues to try to get him extradited.
The chief superintendent also revealed the dramatic arrest was made as detectives discovered the alleged gunman was about to flee his UK bolthole for a 'paradise island tax haven.'
Speaking at the first press conference Spanish police have held since Monaghan and Lyons Jr were shot dead at Monaghans Irish Bar in Fuengirola after the Champions League final, Mr Agudo Novo who heads up a provincial Judicial Police unit, said: 'The double murder was carried out by a professional killer and member of one of the victims' rival gangs.
'In this case we're not talking about an independent hired killer but an internal member of the rival Daniels gang who ends up assassinating two members of an enemy gang.
'I want to highlight the high level of professionalism of this individual. Not only did he walk up to the table where the victims were sitting and kill the first man before continuing with his mission when his gun jammed.
'It's not normal for a criminal to react the way he did in the face of this unexpected problem and resolve the situation to continue and pursue his second victim inside the bar and kill him.
'His escape was also a very professional one. It was clear he had previously studied all the cameras in the area and undertaken some other investigative procedures I can't go into at this stage.
'He had his escape route perfectly planned out, picking areas where there were a lack of cameras and at one point even entering a train tunnel and crossing the tracks because he knew he couldn't be filmed there.'
The police chief said 'Absolutely' when asked if he thought the suspect, now facing extradition to Spain and a double murder charge, had travelled from the UK to Spain to carry out his alleged crimes.
He added: 'His escape route involved travelling from Spain to Portugal and he then took a plane from Portugal to Leeds.
'Once he got to Leeds, with the support of his gang, he changed addresses three times.
'It took us four days to get an idea of who he was and another three, so seven days in total, to get a name for the man we wanted arrested.
'That's when we contacted the British police and asked a court in Fuengirola to issue an international arrest warrant.
'The last address the suspect was tracked down to was in Liverpool.
'We discovered that the day he was arrested he was planning to flee the UK for a paradise island, a tax haven with which there would have been no extradition treaty.'
Mr Agudo Novo was asked to name the destination but said he couldn't for 'operational reasons' as the investigation remained open and police were hopeful of making more arrests, although he said he believed the suspected gunman had 'acted alone.'
Colleague Juan Antonio Sillero, Chief Inspector of the specialist Udyco Costa del Sol police unit which also led the operation to track down the alleged double killer, said he believed both Monaghan and Lyons Jr were the intended targets and the operation to assassinate them was launched after their rivals received information on where they would be on May 31.
He said revenge killings couldn't be ruled out and they were doing 'everything possible' to avoid more bloodshed.
In a statement issued after this morning's press conference at the Spanish National Police HQ in Malaga, the force said: 'The investigation began when just before midnight on May 31 a man who was hiding his face behind a cap and a scarf round his neck opened fire against two people who had been sitting on the terrace of a pub in Fuengirola.
'The first shots fired killed one victim instantly. The second victim managed to escape after taking advantage of the moment the killer's gun jammed and took refuge inside the premises until he was hit again receiving two shots which ended his life.
'Afterwards the suspect fled the scene and crossed three borders in less than 15 hours.
'After leaving Spain he reached Portugal by land and from there took a flight to the UK.
'During his journey he changed his physical appearance, and even shaved his face completely, to avoid being recognised.
'Once he was in the UK, he hid in different residential dwellings to hamper the investigation and his subsequent investigation.'
Career criminal Monaghan, who fled Scotland for Spain after a failed attempt on his life outside a Glasgow primary school in 2017, was tried but acquitted over the murder of notorious Glasgow hood Kevin 'Gerbil' Carroll at an Asda car park in 2010.
In August 2017 he and Eddie Lyons Jr, both members of the Lyons Glasgow crime family, were cleared of being involved in a brutal street attack on three men outside the Campsie bar in Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire.
The Fuengirola pub murders followed the fatal shooting nearly seven weeks ago of a 32-year-old British man in nearby Calahonda a 15-minute drive from the Irish bar towards Marbella.
He was shot dead around 8pm on April 21 in a professional hit as he headed back to his car after finishing a football match with friends.
The killers fled in a getaway car that was later torched. Police are investigating the brutal assassination as a drug-related gang shooting but have yet to make any arrests.
The victim has not been named but was known to come from Liverpool.
Reports at the time described the incident as the fourth shooting so far that month on the Costa del Sol, where rival gangs have increasingly used extreme violence to settle scores and a number of international mafias are known to have a base.
Four days before the Calahonda shooting a 34-year-old man was rushed to the Costa del Sol Hospital in Marbella after being shot outside a nightclub in the famous Costa del Sol resort.
The May 31 shootings of Monaghan, 46, and Lyons Jr, 43, had been linked to the long-running feud between their gang and the Glasgow-based Lyons Crime Family.
In a statement released on June 3, Police Scotland made it clear it was not directly investigating the murders.
'The investigation into the fatal shootings in Fuengirola is being carried out by Spanish police,' it said.
'Police Scotland is supporting Spanish police where requested, however at this time we have no officers deployed within Spain.
'There is currently no intelligence to suggest the deaths of these two men in Spain are linked to the recent criminal attacks in Scotland being investigated as part of Operation Portaledge.
'Any misinformation or speculation linking the events in Spain are not helpful to the ongoing investigations in either country.
'There is also nothing to suggest that the shooting in Fuengirola was planned from within Scotland.'
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