SPANISH POLICE HAVE arrested five people as part of an investigation into a gang suspected of involvement in the suspicious disappearance of Irish man Darren Hoolahan.

Hoolahan (40), a native of Dublin and brother of footballer Wes Hoolahan, went missing on 10 June on Spain’s southern Costa del Sol, where he had been living for the past few years.

The Journal understands that he had ties with a gang with connections to the Kinahan cartel in Spain, and fell foul of the gang. 

The five men arrested were described by Malaga police as part of a “well-known Irish gang”. They were arrested in the towns of Estepona and Benahavís in the province of Málaga on 27 October during what was code-named as Operation Bernabé. 

Police said they were arrested for their alleged involvement in crimes including unlawful detention, possession of military-grade weapons, illegal possession of firearms, vehicle theft, drug trafficking, and membership in a criminal organisation.

One of the men arrested was the subject of a European Arrest Warrant issued by Irish authorities in connection with a violent robbery, police said. 

Screengrab from footage of the operation. Spanish police Spanish police

On 27 October, police conducted raids and searches at five properties in Estepona and one in Benahavís. They arrested five men, aged between 28 and 58, who are all linked to the Irish mafia, according to the police statement.

Four of the men are Irish and one is English, according to police.

Screengrab from footage of the operation. Spanish police Spanish police

Police also seized three handguns (one equipped with a silencer), two military-grade weapons (an AK-47 and a submachine gun), a machete, several mobile phones, and two computers. 

Additionally, they recovered a stolen vehicle, seized eight other vehicles, €61,520 in cash, and 37.8kg of hashish.

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Hoolahan’s disappearance

On Tuesday, Málaga police released a detailed description of the events leading up to Hoolahan’s disappearance and their subsequent investigation.

Police said that Hoolahan went to meet an individual at a café in the town of San Pedro Alcántara, in Marbella on 10 June. The following day, his partner filed a missing person report at Marbella police station.

A month before he went missing, Hoolahan had received “a warning” when several vehicles belonging to him were set on fire outside his home in a residential area of ​​Marbella.

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Police analysed the evidence and reconstructed Hoolahan’s movements before his disappearance, concluding that he did attend a meeting at a bar in San Pedro and subsequently got into the car of the person who had arranged to meet him there.

They said that he was likely kidnapped due to a falling-out with members of a cell affiliated with a “well-known Irish gang based on the Málaga coast”, and he was subsequently taken to a rural area in Estepona and transferred to a second vehicle.

Police later the vehicle was later found burnt out in a mountainous area, in what police described as an attempt to destroy evidence.

- With reporting by Niall O’Connor