The British man held by Spanish police over the death of former TOWIE star Elliott Wright’s Costa del Sol restaurant guard three months ago has been arrested over the alleged shooting of an Irishman last year.
The 32-year-old was one of six Britons arrested at the start of February when police identified him as an alleged member of a criminal gang linked to the attempted murders of three Irishmen in a lake near Marbella.
He described the British policemen at the time as “extremely violent” in an official statement and claimed they had moved to the Costa del Sol to “settle scores”.
The suspect, who is now at the center of a manslaughter investigation following the death of Jose Rafael Pisano Pardo, a doorman at Olivia’s La Cala restaurant in Wright, said police sources said. He pointed a gun at officers when they raided his home to arrest him on Tuesday. .
He put down the gun after he heard the officers shouting “the police” as they broke down his door.
Spanish police confirmed overnight that “the man arrested by the Civil Guard following the doorman’s death is the same person arrested by the National Police in February as part of the operation codenamed Operation Tortuga”.
The unidentified man was taken away by police officers in handcuffs after his arrest in Marbella on Tuesday
Father-of-two José Rafael Pisano Pardo, 55 (pictured) died in hospital Sunday night after sustaining serious injuries when he got into a fight at Olivia La Cala restaurant in Marbella.
Elliott Wright shared a heartfelt tribute to his late employee on social media. The former TOWIE star was photographed at La Cala in Olivia
Pardo, 55, died in a Malaga hospital on Sunday after sustaining serious injuries when he got into a fight at La Cala Olivia restaurant (pictured) in Marbella.
He was released on bail pending an ongoing investigation after his arrest in February, despite the serious charges leveled against him. Court officials confirmed Thursday that he was also provisionally released after appearing before a judge following his arrest over Bardot’s death.
Pardo, 55, died in a Malaga hospital on Sunday after sustaining serious injuries when he got into a fight at La Cala Olivia’s restaurant in Marbella.
The married father of two is believed to have fallen to the floor during attempts to remove the suspect from the restaurant after a fight broke out.
The suspect, who was arrested on Tuesday, was arrested in February on charges of the attempted murder of three Irishmen.
Irish The turtle lagoon near Marbella was targeted on the 30th of September last year where they were fishing when a strike team arrived to kill them.
A 24-year-old man who was shot in the leg was described as a friend of a Dublin mob boss known as Mr. Flashy.
The victim was hospitalized with serious injuries with kidney damage, but he survived. The other two targets cheated death and were unharmed.
Police released video footage of the moment they were driven into their home with a battering ram yelling ‘policia, policeia, on the floor’ to handcuff the six suspects in February during pre-dawn raids they carried out using sniffer dogs to help them gather evidence.
A spokesman for the Spanish National Police said after the six arrests on 1 February: “National Police officers have broken up a criminal gang specialized in ‘settling scores’ and have arrested six alleged members of the organisation.
With these arrests we consider that the police investigation into an assassination attempt last September in Marbella is now closed.
Investigators carried out raids in Marbella, Estepona, Fuengirola and Quin and seized four handguns, a revolver, a weapon, several machetes, an axe, a bulletproof vest, masks, handcuffs and ammunition among other items.
The assassination attempt took place in a lake called Turtle Lake on September 20 last year while three men were fishing and were attacked with weapons by a gang of men who shot their vitals with the intention of killing them.
One of them was injured and needed medical attention.
Pictured: The British man arrested over the death of Mr Bardot is being taken away by the police in Marbella
Unconfirmed local reports indicated that the doorman (pictured) was punched while trying to intervene in the fight, causing him to hit his head on the corner of a table where he fell and lost his balance.
Jessie J is pictured with Mr. Wright and his wife, Sadie Stewart, at Olivia’s La Cala restaurant
The spokesperson added: ‘The gang’s modus operandi was to select their victim and rely on equipment that would enable them to know their whereabouts and determine the best time to act with complete impunity.
They have used a stolen car with wrong number plates to drive to the area where they plan to end their targets’ lives.
The vehicle they used and the places where they stored their weapons were specified.
All captured weapons had ammunition in them and were ready for use.
During one of the raids, one of the suspects pointed his gun at the police and only dropped it after the officers had fired warning shots.
“This operation, dubbed Turtle, enabled the police to crush a criminal gang dedicated to contract killings.”
A judge went on to grant bail to four of the six detainees and to hold only two in a local jail, despite serious allegations against the men by the police.
The four suspects were ordered provisionally released to surrender their passports, banned from leaving Spain and required to sign in court twice a month.
The ongoing court investigation at the time was described as an investigation of “crimes against the people, possession of illegal weapons and drug offences” although the charges each man faced were not made clear.
Pardo, 55, died in a hospital in Malaga on Sunday evening, hours after being admitted to intensive care.
He had intervened to stop the fighting at Olivia La Cala in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Police arrested the man suspected of killing him in Marbella after reportedly obtaining security camera footage from inside Elliott’s Olivia La Cala restaurant showing him punching the doorman as he tried to restrain him after a fight broke out.
They also released footage of the arrest, which was made with the help of an elite Civil Guard unit called the GAR that has its origins in a group initially intended to combat the terrorist group ETA.
Romina Acuna, Jose’s Chilean-born widow, told Malaga newspaper Sur earlier this week that he called her half an hour before the incident to say he was concerned about the number of drunk customers in the restaurant.
Widow Romina with her late husband Jose Pisani Pardo on their wedding day in Vegas
The couple had been married just five months ago in a glamorous ceremony in Las Vegas and were planning to have a baby and start a new life together selling sports supplements in the Canary Islands.
Romina also revealed that Jose, a bodybuilder and personal trainer as well as a doorman at Elliott’s Costa restaurant, was planning to quit his two-year job there after the summer.
Father of three Mr. Wright temporarily closed his restaurant in La Cala de Mijas on Monday for two days out of respect for the dead man.
Absolutely devastated to lose Jose – he was such a dear friend and colleague, the 43-year-old said in a later Instagram post.
“The whole team is grieving for a wonderful human being and I support them.
I’ve known Jose for over a decade – he’s been such a friendly face since I moved to Spain. Over time he became a great friend and colleague.
This will take a long time to get over, if it ever happens. He was a really good guy.
Emphasizing that his restaurant was vandalized on Tuesday after painters painted it with strange graffiti in Spanish including the words “Mafia” and “Elliott Asesino”, English for “Elliott Killer”, he added: “Today our restaurant was vandalized and we left. , already shocked and saddened, in complete disbelief.
“We will not let this senseless vandalism distract us.”
The restaurant itself was badly damaged in an arson attack two years ago. Two masked men carrying jerrycans were caught on security cameras storming the building shortly before they caught fire.
