A 44-YEAR-OLD MAN arrested Thursday in connection with the murder six years ago of Robbie Lawlor, the gangland criminal shot dead in Belfast, has been remanded in custody facing extradition to the North of Ireland.

Jonathan Gill was brought to the High Court in Dublin Friday morning after having been arrested by gardaí at an address on Malahide Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3 on foot of an extradition warrant issued to the PSNI by Belfast Magistrates Court on 31 March.

Officers from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, supported by armed gardaí, arrested the man at his north Dublin residence as part of a joint investigation with the PSNI.

He was detained overnight at a garda station in the city after the High Court had directed execution of the warrant.

Evidence of Gill’s arrest was presented by gardaí today before Judge Barry O’Donnell who returned Gill in custody until 21 April. Gill is entitled to challenge his extradition.

It was shown on the face of the warrant that extradition had been sought on the basis he was alleged to have been engaged in a joint criminal enterprise.

The PSNI believed that Lawlor’s murder had been part of an ongoing drugs feud stemming from the Republic of Ireland with criminal associations in the Dublin, Sligo and Drogheda areas.

The warrant stated that a number of key personalities involved in the feud had been murdered during the currency of the feud.

The PSNI has been investigating the murder of Robbie Lawlor with the assistance of An Garda Síochána.

Judge O’Donnell, having been told by a garda witness that he was satisfied the man before the court was Jonathan Gill, read him his rights, including, if he wished, his voluntary surrender to the PSNI in Northern Ireland and his entitlement to legal representation.