Kinahan hitman Imre Arakas charged with gun murder of MMA fighter

Arakas – who has been nicknamed ‘The Butcher’ – is one of Europe’s most infamous criminals and has ties to organised crime gangs in the Balkans and Spain.

The Estonian national was hired by the Kinahan Cartel to kill James’ Mago’ Gately in Northern Ireland in 2017 before being caught in the act by gardaí.

On Monday, Arakas was back in court in Lithuania for a a pre-trial hearing for the murder of MMA fighter Remigijus Morkevičius in December 2016.

The Prosecutor General’s Office said the case has been handed over to the court.

Morkevičius died after he was shot in front of his house in Kaunas on December 21, 2016.

The investigation was launched after the attempted murder of another man on the night of July 22, 2016 who was shot with a firearm with a silencer.

He survived after emergency medical assistance by ambulance medics.

Charges have been brought against Arakas, the Prosecutor General’s Office said on Monday, as investigations of both crimes revealed that he is the alleged perpetrator.

Milda Kryžė, a spokeswoman for Kaunas Regional Court, told Baltic News Service that Arakas was remanded in custody until July 4.

Arakas was arrested in Ireland in 2017 when he was preparing to kill Gately.

In December 2018, he was sentenced to six years behind bars after pleading guilty to conspiring with others to murder Gately in Northern Ireland between April 3rd and April 4th, 2017.

Arakas had been contracted by the Kinahan cartel to carry out the shooting and boasted in messages that he would take out Gately with “one shot in the head”.

He had bought a wig in Dublin and a used encrypted Blackberry phone to receive information about the movements and location of Gately.

He also requested a silencer for the job.

He was to be paid a five-figure sum for carrying out the hit.

After serving his sentence in Ireland, the Estonian was handed over to Lithuanian law enforcement in January last year for prosecution for crimes committed in Lithuania.

In December of last year, Arakas claimed in an interview from behind bars that he turned down millions of dollars to become an informer on the Kinahan cartel.

At the time the veteran criminal was behind bars in Lithuania where he was facing firearms and conspiracy-related charges in relation to the shooting of Deimantas Bugavicius in November 2015.

Arakas gave an interview to Estonian TV station Kanal 2 where he claimed Lithuanian police tried to get him to give up the Kinahan cartel for a $5m reward.

“This is a strange proposal — it’s abnormal. They want me to give up the Kinahan clan,” he said.

“I told them to f**k off. This offer for me is pretty crazy — how would they even make this deal — it’s impossible.

“Of course the sums are big and they also promised me a new identity to go and live in the USA with my family.

“I will not make an agreement with the Lithuanian police. A terrifying label has been stuck on me and it has little to do with reality.”

He also said serving his sentence in Ireland for the Gately murder plot was like staying in a three star hotel and said, “prison in Ireland is OK if you were friends with the Kinahans.”

Despite pleading guilty to the Gately murder plot, he bizarrely claimed he was only in Ireland at the time to go camping.

“Everyone thinks I am an international killer but I was in Ireland for camping. Look at the things I had in my bag. I wasn’t going to kill anyone.”

Arakas also denied in the interview that he was involved in the murder he is accused of in Lithuania.

The murder had been widely covered in Lithuania. Bugavicius was previously linked to one of the country’s most famous pop stars, Vita Jakutiene.

Arakas travelled to the Lithuanian city of Kaunas along with the two other Estonians and they stayed in an apartment rented by a Lithuanian former boxer Ricardas Baika ahead of the murder of Bugavicius.

Police said they found Arakas’ fingerprints and DNA during a search of the apartment.

Arakas told authorities at a previous court hearing that he could not explain how his fingerprints and DNA were in the apartment and said he never lived in the apartment.

The court also heard that police found a number of items during a search of Arakas daughter’s home in Tallinn, Estonia, including masks, camouflage noses, bulletproof vests, camouflage clothes, a rifle searchlight and a map of Lithuania.

When questioned about this in court, Arakas replied: “Lithuanian policemen were very strict, they took a map of Lithuania, things I had for more than 20 years, my son’s shoes.”

The court also heard that police found a number of items during a search of Arakas daughter’s home in Tallinn, Estonia, including masks, camouflage noses, bulletproof vests, camouflage clothes, a rifle searchlight and a map of Lithuania.

As well as the Gately plot, Arakas has previous convictions which include causing deliberate bodily harm, escaping from prison and unlawful handling of firearms.