Gerard Hutch released on bail of €100,000 in Spain

Gerard Hutch, the man known as the Monk, has been released from custody in Spain.

In a statement this afternoon the High Court in the Canary Islands said the 61-year-old was provisionally released on bail of €100,000 this morning.

Hutch was one of nine people arrested in Spain as part of a joint international investigation between the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Guardia Civil into money laundering by the Hutch Organised Crime Group.

The investigation is focused on the movements of large sums of money and the purchase of a number of properties in Spain.

The Spanish authorities describe the nine as "alleged members of a gang of international criminals who are being investigated as alleged perpetrators of money laundering crimes by a criminal organisation".

The investigating magistrate has taken statements from them and all nine have now been released on bail.

Hutch is described in the statement from the High Court in the Canary Islands as "the alleged leader of an international gang of criminals".

The court also said the investigating magistrate made the decision to release him on bail after receiving a favourable report from the Public Prosecutor's Office.

Hutch was described in the Special Criminal Court as the leader of the Hutch family and found not guilty of the murder of David Byrne, a Kinahan gang member at the Regency Hotel in Dublin in February 2016.

The murder led to an escalation in the ongoing feud between the Hutch and the Kinahan Organised Crime Groups which has so far cost 18 lives.