EXCLUSIVE: Michael Riley Man accused of murders of Scottish gangsters Ross Monaghan and Eddie Lyons Jnr in Irish bar in Spain set to be extradicted

A man accused of executing two Scottish gangsters at an Irish bar in Spain has given up his battle against extradition in a surprise U-turn.

Michael Riley (44) of Huyton, Merseyside, is accused of the Costa del Sol hit on Lyons gang members Ross Monaghan and Eddie Lyons Jnr.

The pair were gunned down in Monaghan's Irish pub in Fuengirola on May 31.

Riley was arrested on a European Arrest Warrant from Spain two weeks later and appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London the same month, when he contested extradition.

He was remanded into custody after being deemed a flight risk, ahead of a full hearing planned for November.

At an interim hearing at the same court on September 29, Renata Pinter, representing Riley, said at the hearing she would advance submissions on behalf of her client based on Article 3 of the Human Rights Act, which "prohibits everyone from being subjected to torture, or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

She also said Riley "suffers from depression and anxiety" and would be in "fear of his life from other gang members" if detained in a Spanish prison.

However, in a shock U-turn at the same court on Tuesday<Oct 7 2025>Riley gave up his fight against being sent to Spain and consented to his extradition.

He will be held in custody until an extradition date is arranged.

Police Scotland had initially insisted in the days after the double murder they had no information to suggest the horror crimes were in any way linked to the gang feuding which has been going on there.

But Malaga-based Spanish police chief Pedro Agudo Novo later described the suspected killer as a member of the Daniels gang which has long been at loggerheads with the Lyons gang the dead men belonged to.

The chief superintendent also said the arrest was made as detectives discovered the alleged gunman was about to flee the UK for a "paradise island tax haven."

Speaking at a press conference Spanish police held after the arrest of Riley, Mr Agudo Novo said: “The double murder was carried out by a professional killer and member of one of the victims’ rival gangs.

“In this case we’re not talking about an independently hired killer but an internal member of the rival Daniels gang who ends up assassinating two members of an enemy gang.

“I want to highlight the high level of professionalism of this individual. Not only did he walk up to the table where the victims were sitting and kill the first man before continuing with his mission when his gun jammed.

“It’s not normal for a criminal to react the way he did in the face of this unexpected problem and resolve the situation to continue and pursue his second victim inside the bar and kill him.“His escape was also a very professional one. It was clear he had previously studied all the cameras in the area and undertaken some other investigative procedures I can’t go into at this stage.

“He had his escape route perfectly planned out, picking areas where there were a lack of cameras and at one point even entering a train tunnel and crossing the tracks because he knew he couldn’t be filmed there.”

The police chief said "Absolutely" when asked if he thought the suspect, now facing extradition to Spain and a double murder charge, had travelled from the UK to Spain to carry out his alleged crimes.

He added: “His escape route involved travelling from Spain to Portugal and he then took a plane from Portugal to Leeds.

“Once he got to Leeds, with the support of his gang, he changed addresses three times.

“It took us four days to get an idea of who he was and another three, so seven days in total, to get a name for the man we wanted arrested.

“That’s when we contacted the British police and asked a court in Fuengirola to issue an international arrest warrant.

“The last address the suspect was tracked down to was in Liverpool.

“We discovered that the day he was arrested he was planning to flee the UK for a paradise island, a tax haven with which there would have been no extradition treaty.”

Mr Agudo Novo was asked to name the destination but said he couldn’t for “operational reasons” as the investigation remained open and police were hopeful of making more arrests, although he said he believed the suspected gunman had “acted alone.”