Monk’s election plans on the brink as Spanish money laundering probe intensifies

Well-placed sources said the investigating magistrate leading the probe was “weeks away” from wrapping it up The veteran criminal has told supporters he will definitely contest the seat vacated last week after Fine Gael’s Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe left politics to join the World Bank in Washington.No date has yet been set for the by-election but it is expected to be held in around five months.Today it emerged the criminal investigation which intensified with the arrest of 62-year-old Hutch and eight other suspects last October was nearing its final stages.Well-placed sources said the investigating magistrate leading the probe was “weeks away” from wrapping it up and deciding whether The Monk should be charged and face trial.Any trial if it ends up going ahead would be unlikely to take place before the by-election, Hutch’s second attempt to take a seat in the Dail following his previous bid last year when he used his political aspirations to secure bail after a month in Lanzarote’s tough Tahiche Prison.Gerry Hutch is hoping to take Pascal Donohoe’s old seatBut the timing of the end of the long-running investigation at a court in the Lanzarote capital Arrecife could mean that when it comes round to poll day, public prosecutors will have already released their indictment calling for prison time for Hutch on conviction if he is ordered to stand trial.A secrecy order, preventing the Irishman’s defence team from accessing full case files and public officials from making any detailed comment about the money laundering and criminal gang allegations he was facing, was in place for several months at the start of the court probe.The Canary Islands’ High Court confirmed today: “The investigation led by Arrecife’s Court of Instruction is still in its preliminary phase in which the investigating magistrate is still probing whether crimes have been committed and if so who should answer for those offences.“But the secrecy order that was in place has now been lifted.”A well-placed insider who has been involved in the case said: “The investigation is nearing its end.“Hutch could find out in a matter of weeks if there is a criminal case with formal charges laid.”Another source added: “A trial if charges are forthcoming won’t happen any time soon but if as expected the judge rules in the run-up to Christmas or early in the New Year public prosecutors will react very soon afterwards.“If the judge recommends charges and trial Hutch could well be going into the Dublin by-election with the real threat of prison hanging over his head.”Hutch, beaten in last November’s General Election Labour’s Marie Sherlock in the race for the four-seater Dublin Central constituency after she received a few thousand transfers from both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail in the last two counts to keep him out, has yet to make any official comment about his new Dail bid.But his associates have re-activated once-dormant Instagram and TikTok accounts used during his previous campaign.One of the main arguments accepted by public prosecutors and the investigating judge probing Hutch over alleged money laundering offences, who let him out of prison following his October 23 2024 arrest and incarceration and attached no travel ban to his release, was that it would harm his election chances.Hutch had to pay a €100,000 bail bond before he was allowed out of jail on November 4 last year.The Irishman was one of nine people accused of belonging to a 'criminal money-laundering gang' arrested during raids by police in Lanzarote and mainland Spain.One of the properties searched was Hutch’s €450,000 penthouse in the popular Costa del Sol holiday resort of Fuengirola, where the Irishman was spotted the same day he was released after flying to Malaga from his Canaries’ home.A judge remanded Gerry and an alleged right-hand man to prison following behind-closed-doors court appearances, but released the other seven suspects on bail.In a statement the day of Hutch’s release, court officials said: “The Irish citizen remanded in custody in Lanzarote on October 25th as the alleged leader of an international criminal gang has been provisionally released on bail of €100,000 this morning, November 4th, after Court of Instruction Number Two in Arrecife upheld his appeal against the imprisonment order.“The investigating magistrate took this decision after receiving a report from the Public Prosecutor's Office which was favourable to the appeal.“The Irish citizen is being investigated as the alleged perpetrator of a money laundering offence committed in the context of a criminal organisation.”

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