Alleged gang boss Gerry Hutch is due in the Special Criminal Court tonight to answer a charge of murder in relation to the Regency Hotel shooting in 2016.
Mr Hutch left a Madrid Airport at about 2.30pm on Wednesday afternoon on an Irish military aircraft in the company of a garda escort.
The aircraft is due in Casement Aerodrome in west Dublin at about 6pm. Mr Hutch will be taken from there, under armed garda escort and is expected to arrive at the Criminal Courts of Justice on Parkgate Gate a hour later.
He is due to appear before the Special Criminal Court at 7.30pm where details of the murder charge will be heard. Mr Hutch will have to apply to the High Court for bail on another occasion.
Extraditions are typically carried out on scheduled, commercial aircraft but gardaí believed this may pose a security risk in Mr Hutch’s case.
Gardaí have put in place and extensive security operation involving specialist armed units, members of the Defence Forces and the Garda Air Unit.
Mr Hutch is considered a target of the Kinahan criminal group and is likely to be kept under close guard while in prison.
Mr Hutch (59) has been in custody since being arrested on the Costa del Sol last month by the Spanish Guardia Civil.
A search for him began in April after Ireland issued a European Arrest Warrant in relation to the Regency attack, which occurred on February 5th, 2016, during a weigh-in for a boxing event.
Daniel Kinahan, the Dublin criminal named in court as a leading figure in the Kinahan cartel, was at the event and gardaí believe he was the gunmen’s main target. However, he managed to escape as several other men were shot, including David Byrne (34) from Crumlin, who died from his injuries.
