Irish man held in Alicante on suspicion of Louth murders

An Irish man has been arrested in Spain in connection with the deaths of two men whose charred remains were found in a burnt-out car near the Border in Co Louth just over four years ago.

The suspect had flown from Northern Ireland to Alicante, where he was arrested disembarking from a flight on Tuesday night on foot of an extradition warrant.

He was expected to be detained by the Spanish authorities head of a court hearing there to determine whether he would be sent back to the Republic and charged in relation to the double murder.

Anthony Burnett (32) and Joseph Redmond (25), both from the Ballybough area of Dublin's north inner city, were found dead in the charred shell of a stolen car at Ravensdale Woods on the night of March 7th, 2012.

They had been shot dead and the vehicle they were in set on fire in an apparent bid to destroy any forensic evidence and to frustrate Garda inquiries.

At the time, the Garda said the VW Golf they were found in had been stolen days earlier in Sandymount, south Dublin.

Double-crossed

It is believed the men had driven from Dublin to Ravensdale Woods to meet persons known to them but were double-crossed on arrival and shot dead.

Mr Burnett, who had lived at a number of addresses in Ballybough in preceding years, was the more serious criminal.

He had scores of convictions, including for many chaotic crimes such as robberies and muggings associated with efforts to raise money on the spur of the moment to buy heroin.

During his many court appearances, different judges were told he had tried cannabis while still at primary school, had moved on to heroin by the time he was aged 13 and had spent a £20,000 compensation payment on heroin.

He had a number of convictions for assault and served three years in prison for an attack on a Slovakian man.

He also had convictions for minor drug-dealing offences and for assaulting a prison officer while he was trying to escape from a prison van in Dublin six years ago.

Mr Redmond had between 50 and 60 convictions, mostly for minor crimes. In one case he was charged with stealing kegs of beer from a pub.