John Gilligan was arrested with two others in southern Spain

Former drug gang leader John Gilligan was arrested in the Alicante region of Spain, where he moved to Ireland after trying his life.

Garda sources said they knew of Gilligan’s arrest but are still trying to determine why he was arrested by Spanish police on the Costa Blanca.

The Irish Times believes that Gilligan, 68, from Dublin, was arrested along with two other men.

One of these men has been known to Irish and Gilligan for decades.

The identity of the third man arrested was not clear.

Gilligan has ties to Spain, where he spent time running his drug empire, and at one point owned a pub – The Judges Chamber near Alicante – with staff.

Gardaí made inquiries with the southern Spanish authorities on Thursday to determine the circumstances surrounding his arrest.

In 1996, members of his drug gang shot Veronica Guerin.

Gilligan was found not guilty despite being jailed for drug trafficking.

He was released from Portlaoise Prison in October 2013 after serving 17 years. Most of the time was sentenced to a drug trafficking sentence, with a short term added for threats to kill a prison officer.

Early December 2013 when Gilligan was free for six weeks; Two armed men entered the Halfway House pub in Ashtown, north Dublin.

Gardaí believe they were looking for him.

Gilligan was less than 1 km away at the Hole in the Wall Pub at the time.

Gardaí officially warned him that his life was in danger. For a while he was driven around by a guard in a bulletproof car.

A few months later, in late February 2014, Gilligan was targeted again. This time he was shot and wounded in his brother’s house in Clondalkin. Photos of him in a wheelchair appeared after the attack and he fled to the UK for some time.

Exactly two weeks after the attack that nearly killed Gilligan, Stephen ‘Dougie’ Moran, who drove him around Dublin, was shot dead at his home in Lucan on the evening of March 15th.