Liverpool man named in Orihuela Costa assassination attempt

A Merseyside man shot a number of times in a failed car park assassination on the Orihuela Costa has been named for the first time. Sonny Redmond, 32, cheated death when a gunman sprayed more than a dozen bullets at his vehicle during the botched killing attempt on December 11 last year.

Redmond is said to have been hit in the arm, leg and chest before alerting a neighbour about his injuries as the gunman fled. The shooting, at around 10pm, was carried out in an underground garage in a residential area of the Lomas de Cabo Roig on the Orihuela Costa.

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Images widely shared on social media and in the press showed the front windscreen riddled with bullet holes. The victim was taken to Torrevieja hospital for emergency surgery. He was said to have been in a serious condition in the intensive care unit.

Shooting victim Redmond was identified as being one of two British men arrested and still being investigated over an armed robbery at a cannabis club last year. He is said to have been allowed to leave prison on bail in November, around seven months after he was arrested and held in custody.

It is not known how long Redmond has been in the south of Spain but he is understood to originally be from the Bootle area of Merseyside. He was served a gang injunction by a Merseyside court in the mid-2010s because of his suspected involvement in organised crime in south Sefton.

He later featured in a Merseyside Police most wanted list for breaching the injunction and failing to attend court in relation to alleged drugs offences.

Others who featured on the list included Connor Chapman, who would be convicted of the Christmas Eve murder of Elle Edwards several years later; Kevin Parle, a suspected gun-for-hire alleged to have carried out two murders over 20 years ago; and the now caged drug trafficker Michael Moogan who was eventually apprehended in Dubai after a number of years on the run.

Redmond was named as one of two men allegedly involved in an armed raid on a San Fulgencio cannabis club. Local reports said he and a second man, 33, broke in allegedly wielding machine guns before making off with cash and €5,000 worth of products in October 2024.

The pair then demanded €25,000 and future profits before threatening the owner and his family. He allegedly attempted to evade authorities by changing his name but was eventually apprehended following a standoff where he was said to have taken an elderly couple hostage.

The shooting of Redmond is linked to the killing of a 29-year-old British man whose body was discovered at a housing development in the Campoamor area. The victim’s body was reported to have been found with several bullet wounds on December 21st, but the police did not confirm the investigation until days after Christmas.

A source has said that the shootings are linked to British and Irish organised drug gangs in the Vega Baja area of Alicante.

The fatal shooting is being investigated by the Judicial Police of the Alicante command of the Guardia Civil. A spokesperson for the police said: “The Orihuela Court of Instruction has sealed the proceedings,” meaning there’s a blackout of official information being passed to the media.

But it is also common for Spanish authorities to not release information to the media while an investigation is ongoing.

The December shootings follow a number of other gun-related incidents from earlier this year with suspected links to Merseyside.

Bootle man Steven Gray, 32, was fatally shot “in the back” in the British holiday resort of Calahonda in Spain on Easter Monday. A burned-out car with two fire-damaged firearms inside was found a short while later.

The following month Scottish gangsters Eddie Lyons Jnr and Ross Monaghan were gunned down in Fuengirola on May 31st while watching a football match. Michael Terrence Riley, 44 and of Huyton but formerly of Bootle, has been extradited from the UK to stand trial accused of their murders.

Southern Spain is colloquially referred to as the “Costa del Crime” due to the high number of organised crime groups who use its shores as a centre of operations. The coastal area, which was historically popular due to lax extradition laws, now sees British and Irish gangs battling with cartels from South America and eastern Europe to gain a foothold.