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Kinahan hitman Imre Arakas extradited to Lithuania to face charges over murder of pop star’s lover

Arakas (65) was handed over to Lithuanian authorities at Dublin Airport this afternoon

Eoghan MoloneyIndependent.ie

5th January 2023

Imre Arakas, an Estonian hitman arrested in Ireland after being employed by the Kinahan cartel to carry out a murder, has been extradited to Lithuania today.

Arakas (65) was handed over to Lithuanian authorities at Dublin Airport this afternoon on foot of a European Arrest Warrant over the murder of Deimantas Bugavicius in November 2015.

Mr Bugavicius was alleged to have had an affair with Lithuanian pop star Vita Jakutiene before his death seven years ago.

Arakas was wanted in Lithuania to face charges, which include murder, as well as firearms and conspiracy-related charges.

The High Court ruled in November 2022 that Arakas would be extradited to face the charges.

A notorious international hitman, Arakas is alleged to have supplied guns to an organised gang in the murder.

The ex-wrestler was jailed by the Special Criminal Court in Ireland for six years in December 2018, after he admitted to conspiring with others to murder James ‘Mago’ Gately in Northern Ireland between April 3 and 4, 2017.

He was contracted by the Kinahan crime gang to assassinate Mr Gately and had told his associates in coded text messages that he would take out his target with “one shot to the head”.

The court heard that Arakas was a member of the Estonian Defence League in the 1990s and was involved in the separatist movement from the USSR.

The married father of two had been “scarred and marked deeply” by imprisonment in Russia, the court also heard.

He has previous convictions which include causing deliberate bodily harm, escaping from prison and unlawful handling of firearms.