A British man accused of fatally shooting a 29-year-old Englishman in Orihuela Costa last year has been arrested.
The gangland assassination occurred in the Lomas de Cabo Roig complex in Campoamor on December 21.
The investigation is being led by the Guardia Civil but remains under a strict gag order.
According to reports, the killing is being treated as a drug-related settling of scores, amid ongoing disputes between English and Irish gangs in the area.
Adding to concerns is the disappearance of another British man in the Vega Baja area, whose whereabouts remain unknown following the December shooting in Orihuela Costa.
Police are said to be keeping all hypotheses open, from a new violent death linked to the UK-Ireland rivalry to a ‘voluntary disappearance’.
No details about the identity of the latest arrested man have been made public. He was brought before the courts in Orihuela earlier this month.
He is being held without bail for murder, reports local newspaper Informacion.
The total silence surrounding the case suggests investigators may be pursuing additional suspects, the report added.
The victim was discovered after 9pm on December 21, when someone alerted the Policia Local to a serious incident at a property in the apartment complex.
Officers found the blood-soaked body of a young man and immediately contacted the Guardia Civil.
Within just over a month, homicide detectives had identified and arrested a British suspect believed to have been involved in the shooting.
One of the lines of inquiry explored by investigators is a possible connection to the shooting of another British man some 10 days earlier.
That individual, identified as Peter F., 32, had been shot three times as he drove into the garage of his home in Orihuela Costa. He survived and spent several days in hospital recovering from his injuries.
Peter F. had been released on bail just two weeks earlier after being held as the alleged leader of a gang accused of extorting cannabis clubs in the Vega Baja area in order to take control of them.
During his arrest in Orihuela Costa, three Guardia Civil officers were injured, and police allegedly seized two sub-machine guns considered weapons of war along with more than 300 rounds of ammunition from his home.
The suspect, who previously went by the name Sonny James R. before changing it to Peter F., was later arrested in January in Merseyside, England, despite being under a court order in Spain prohibiting him from leaving the country and requiring him to report to court every two weeks.
Following his arrest in the UK, the Orihuela judge revoked his provisional release, ordered him to be remanded in custody and issued an international arrest warrant.
Extradition to Spain is expected to be delayed, as Peter F. is due to stand trial in England in June over a 2016 offence involving possession of a knife and a mobile phone while in a British prison, according to British media reports.
