GANGLAND GODFATHER

This was a professional Russian hit. There were 13 shots and we don't think they wasted a bullet. It has a military-trained assassin written all over it, possibly ex-special forces,' a senior detective told The Observer. 'The intelligence coming back from the Costa del Sol is that Paddy Doyle crossed the Russian mafia, which is something you do there at your peril.' The officer said shortly after Christmas Doyle got involved in a brawl with a young Russian man whom he severely beat up. Unknown to Doyle, the man was related to a senior Russian mafia figure. True to form, on a warm afternoon in one of Spain's most popular destinations for tourists and holiday-home owners, vengeance was exacted in a ruthless fashion. Less than 24 hours after Doyle's murder, cocaine valued at about €9.2million was seized by Spanish police in Estepona close to the shooting. Doyle was on his way to meet a British criminal when his car was ambushed and this triggered speculation that h...

Police arrested seven people and seized cocaine worth €7.7 million. Meanwhile, there was growing doubt yesterday as to whether Freddie Thompson, an associate of murdered gangland figure Paddy Doyle, was in a car with Doyle when he was shot dead in Spain on Monday. Detectives yesterday arrested an Irishman and six Britons, including a minor, and seized 110 kilos of cocaine hidden inside a lorry transporting furniture near to the murder spot. Government spokesman Juan Jose Lopez Garzon said: “All the indications are that there is a link between the drugs and the dead man.” Gary Hutch, who was travelling in the car with Doyle, presented himself at a police station in Spain yesterday. Hutch was driving the BMW 4x4 in the town of Cancelada, in the resort of Estepona, on the Costa del Sol, with Doyle in the front passenger seat, when they came under attack from another car at lunchtime on Monday. The attackers sprayed the windscreen and front passenger door with five shots, forcing Hutch to ...

Patrick Doyle (27) was shot as he tried to escape in a luxury BMW 4X4 which had come under fire on the outskirts of Estepona, about 10 miles from Marbella. Injured in the incident was another convicted Dublin criminal, Gary Hutch, while Freddie Thompson, who was recently acquitted of drugs and firearms charges in the Netherlands, escaped unhurt. The three men were travelling in a BMW 4x4 in the Cancelada district when another BMW 4x4 fired on them. Four shots were pumped into the front windscreen and another into the front passenger door, before the driver, Gary Hutch, lost control of the vehicle. The BMW hit a lamp post and Doyle, who was a front-seat passenger, attempted to run away. The occupants of the 4x4, however, began firing again and the Irishman was struck twice in the head. The attack took place at the Bel-Air apartment complex, and eyewitnesses said the gunmen made their escape in another BMW 4x4. Freddie Thompson (27), who was in the back seat of the car yesterday and esca...