article_detail

A British man has been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of a 29-year-old English man whose body was discovered on December 21 at an urbanisation in Orihuela Costa.

 

Agents from the Homicide Team of the Guardia Civil in Alicante made the arrest this week following a month-long investigation into the killing, which took place in the Campoamor area. The case is believed to be linked to a drug trafficking score-settling.

 

The Guardia Civil was alerted to the crime by a Local Police patrol at around 9pm on December 21. Officers had been called to a house in Lomas de Cabo Roig after people reported that something serious had happened to a friend. When they arrived, they found the bloodied body of the young man and immediately notified the Guardia Civil.

 

Just a few weeks later, homicide investigators identified and arrested the British suspect.

 

One line of inquiry being pursued by the Guardia Civil is whether the killing is connected to another shooting that happened ten days earlier. On December 11, 32-year-old British national Peter F. was shot and wounded when he drove his car into the garage of his home.

 

The victim, who had been released on bail just two weeks earlier, was the alleged leader of a gang that extorted cannabis clubs in the Vega Baja region to take control of them.

 

Peter F., formerly known as Sonny James R., had been held in prison after robbing a cannabis club in San Fulgencio. When he was arrested in Orihuela Costa, three Guardia Civil officers were injured during the operation. Officers seized two submachine guns, classed as weapons of war, and more than 300 rounds of ammunition of various calibres from his home.

 

The British man spent several days in hospital recovering from three gunshot wounds. In January, he was arrested in Merseyside in England, despite the fact that the Orihuela court investigating him for the cannabis club robbery had released him on bail with a ban on leaving the country and an obligation to appear in court every two weeks.

 

For the moment, the Guardia Civil is keeping all possibilities open, including yet another violent death related to disputes between drug trafficking gangs in the UK and Ireland.

 

Image: Guardia Civil