Gangsters' Costa del Sol turf war linked to 4 murders in past year - and police fear more bloodshed
British gangsters are locked in a lethal turf war as ruthless crime bosses battle for control of the lucrative drugs trade on the Costa del Sol.
A Sunday People investigation today reveals the shocking extent of the violence that has sparked a string of shootings by rival mobsters.
Four people have been murdered and dozens more have been injured in the past year alone.
But cops fear the bloodshed is set to get even worse.
Our investigation – centred on the popular Spanish seaside resort of Marbella – has found out:
Gangsters hellbent on revenge are hunting the wife of the man who ordered the killing of an Irishman in broad daylight a week ago.
Russian and Dutch mobsters are embroiled in vicious clashes with Brits in the desperate fight to control the sale and supply of drugs, which is worth about £5billion a year in Spain.
Hell’s Angels are now feared to be trying to muscle in on the trade in resorts and towns across Spain.
And the turf wars are becoming so bloody Spanish cops have called on their British counterparts to help them nail the pitiless monsters behind the latest outbreak of violence.
Dozens of gangs are currently vying for supremacy in the Costa del Sol drugs business because of the vast profits to be made from importing and distributing heroin, amphetamines, cocaine and cannabis.
The gang war is centred on the holiday hotspot of Marbella, which has been dubbed a Costa del Crime bolt-hole because so many British crooks operate there.
And in a region of multi-million-pound yachts, sprawling luxury villas, flash Ferraris, upmarket boutiques and swanky restaurants, the demand for “highs” by the super-rich ex-pats is rocketing.
Wealth: Puerto Banus in Marbella is a playground for the rich, but has a darker side (Image: Getty)
The latest flashpoint in the battle to control the drugs trade came eight days ago when Irish gangster Gerard “Hatchet” Kavanagh was murdered .
Kavanagh – a 44-year-old underworld enforcer – was killed by two assassins as he was drinking in a busy bar in the swish Andalusian resort of Elviria near Marbella.
He was shot nine times last Saturday on the terrace of the popular Harmons Bar where he had gone with a mystery woman and a man believed to be one of his sons.
Witnesses said he’d been in the bar for only a minute when the masked men – both dressed in black like ninjas – burst in and opened fire.
One onlooker told police Kavanagh, who was wearing a pair of green shorts, was blasted several times in the back before he was shot once in the head as he lay dying on the floor.
Police later found a burnt-out BMW X3 that they believe may have been the killers’ getaway car.
CCTV footage taken from a business next to the murder scene is believed to have caught the killing on tape.
Spanish detectives are investigating whether the murder is part of a deadly clash between the Irish Kinahan clan – which Kavanagh was linked to – and rival gangs. The dead man was said to be a senior member of a notorious drugs gang run by godfather Christy Kinahan, who is based on the Costa del Sol.
Friends of Kavanagh are now searching for the wife of the man who ordered the hit – to exact a bloody revenge.
Scene: Harmons Irish Bar, where Irish gangster Gerard Kavanagh was shot dead (Image: Solar Pix)
A source close to the Kinahan mob warned: “What we have seen so far is nothing compared with what lies ahead.
“There are scores to settle and that always ends one way – in violence.”
The source added: “There is no question of this being an internal dispute within the Kinahan network.
“Some senior lads in that crew are absolutely furious about it and they won’t take this lying down.”
Kavanagh was reportedly involved in disputes with the Russian mafia and a Dutch drugs gang.
Sources also implicated him in a £1million dispute involving Kinahan and a gangster in Ireland.
Moore, who is not suspected of any wrongdoing, trained a Birmingham fighter who runs boxing gym in Marbella – thought to have links to Christy Kinahan.
Jason Coghlan, who now runs a Marbella law firm, JaCogLaw, which advises ex-pats who are in trouble with the authorities, said organised crime in the region is spiralling.
He said: “We won’t be surprised to see more arrests in the coming weeks – the Spanish police are under immense pressure to lift someone.”
Coghlan, originally from Manchester, was adamant the Irish head the list of the Costa’s most dangerous operators.
But he thinks that the first arrests may well involve Russians or Ukrainians.
He also said a UK police force was working with Spanish authorities to crack down on gangland crimes.
And he warned there will be more shootings. Coghlan added: “There’s no doubt about that.”
The Kavanagh murder happened nine days after a Dutch drugs lord called Samir “Scarface” Bouyakhrichan died in a hail of bullets just outside Marbella.
The 36-year-old was drinking with pals on a bar’s terrace near the home of ex-England football manager Fabio Capello when two men opened fire.
Fatality: Gerard Kavanagh's corpse is wheeled out of the busy shopping are where he was killed (Image: Solar Pix)
Last February an Algerian-born Frenchman was killed in front of his three kids – aged three, nine and ten – as he drove them to school.
A woman flagged down his car and a male accomplice shot him, leaving the children cowering in the back.
In April, a 43-year-old man suffered bullet wounds in central Marbella.
And in August a dad was killed by two men as he sat in his car with his wife and two children in the town’s upmarket Golden Mile district.
The victim, believed to be Dutch, was shot at least ten times. Incredibly, his family were unhurt.
At the time investigators believed the murder was a “settling of scores”.
Kavanagh was killed in a bar owned by Irishman Dave Harmon and his British wife Tracy. Staff in a nearby restaurant claimed Kavanagh’s son Jamie, 24, was with him when he was shot.
A waitress said: “Two men with balaclavas and guns ran past.
“I heard a load of gunshots and then they ran past again.
“The guy people said was his son was shaking and texting like crazy.”
And a 58-year-old Brit ex-pat said: “It’s a miracle no one else was hurt.
“There were tourists at all the restaurants in the square and bullets were flying everywhere.”
As cops prepare for a spate of tit-for-tat shootings, there are claims Hell’s Angels are moving in on Spain’s drugs trade. A recent report revealed up to 160 of the thugs could be involved.
The explosion of violence has sparked dozens of calls for the government to act swiftly to prevent foreign mobsters creating even more mayhem.
Local leftist politician Antonio Murcia has blasted “the ease and impunity with which organised crime operates in the Costa del Sol”.
They fear the rise in drugs-dealing is also feeding a plague of fraud and money-laundering.