Following the shooting of Trevor O'Neill in Costa de la Calma last week, it has emerged that Interpol had alerted Spanish security forces to the fact that two "dangerous criminals" had arrived in Majorca.
O'Neill's murder is linked to the ongoing feud between the Hutch and Kinahan clans, both of them associated, among other things, with drugs trafficking and which had, at one time, been partners. This came to an end in 2008, and violence and assassinations have been factors ever since.
However, Interpol's information did not, it is said, extend to identifying the two criminals as belonging to the Kinahans (Trevor O'Neill is reported to have been friendly with a member of the Hutch family). The Guardia Civil, it is understood, were able to find out where the two were staying and to keep a watch on the hotel, but the two left Majorca on the same day that O'Neill was shot. They are believed to have returned to Ireland and were also believed to have come to Majorca with their respective partners. Their getaway is thought to have been aided by an accomplice with a boat at Cala Blanca. This would have enabled them to evade controls that were quickly put in place following the shooting.
Sources close to the case are now coming round to the hypothesis that was originally postulated - that Trevor O'Neill was not the intended target. These same sources suggest that the Irish "mafia" is something of an unknown but that its structure and ways of operating make it one of the most complex and dangerous international criminal organisations.