A man being held in Spain as part of the investigation into the shooting dead of Gary Hutch is a 34-year-old criminal from Dublin who is well-known to the Garda.

James Quinn (34) was arrested as part of a series of coordinated raids and search operations in both Dublin and southern Spain targeting the criminal gang headed by Irishman Christy Kinahan.

Quinn is a nephew of Martin Foley, the 65-year-old criminal also known as The Viper.

He was due to spend his first night last night at Alhaurin de la Torre prison. The maximum security jail is where Christy Kinahan and his two sons Daniel and Christopher were remanded in custody after their arrests in May 2010 following a major police investigation into drugs trafficking and money laundering.

Quinn has not been charged with any crime, but is understood to have been declared an ‘investigado’ – a new legal term in Spain which literally means ‘under investigation’.

The probe into his alleged crime – coordinated by an investigating judge – will continue while he is held in prison. The investigation is expected to last for several months.

Suspects under Spanish law can be held for a maximum of four years without charge – although a new application to continue holding them in custody has to be sought by officials after two years.

A former boxer, Quinn has been splitting his time between his native Dublin and Spain in recent years.

He has served time in prison in Ireland and has over 70 convictions. While most are for road traffic offences, he has also been involved in a number of violent crimes.

In July 2013 he was given a two-year jail sentenced, with one year suspended, at Dublin Circuit Court.

The sentencing hearing was told when Quinn was ejected from a city centre pub in May, 2008, he returned after closing and followed one of the bouncers as he drove his car home.

He had earlier told the bouncer when being ejected: “I’m not threatening you, but you’re going to be very sorry for putting me out of the pub.”

When the security guard reached traffic lights at the Red Cow, west Dublin, and stopped his car, Quinn appeared from his vehicle armed with a hammer and smashed the windscreen of the other car. “I told you you’d be sorry, you bastard,” he told the security guard.

While the attack occurred in 2008 and was not dealt with in court until five years later, Garda witnesses said the delay had occurred because Quinn had been living in Spain.

The court was also told at the time that Quinn had been convicted for assaulting a Garda member in Dublin’s south inner city, where he is from, in April, 2008.

Quinn was arrested in Spain as he was attempting to board a flight in Madrid. A yacht and Bentley car the police in Spain believe he was using have also been seized.

Gary Hutch (35), was a one-time member of the Kinahan gang but fell foul of the cartel when he was accused of supplying information to the authorities about drug shipments. When he tried to murder a senior gang member, but failed, he fled Spain fearing for his life.

He returned to southern Spain last summer believing his extended family back in Dublin had reached an agreement with the Kinahan gang and paid €200,000 to the cartel to spare his life.

However, the agreement was reneged on and Hutch was shot dead on September 24th last year.

The armed robber and drug dealer was gunned down beside a swimming pool in a communal area of the Angel de Miraflores apartments complex, near Marbella on the Costa del Sol.

Since then the Kinahan gang has continued to target the Hutch family and their associates, with 10 murders – eight in Ireland and two in Spain – now linked to the dispute.