Police in Holland have arrested convicted Irish criminal John Traynor who fled Ireland following the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin in 1996.
The 62-year-old has been on the run for 18 years and was arrested by Dutch police in Amsterdam.
It is understood he was detained after officers found him carrying a fake ID while trying to hire a car.
He is now awaiting extradition to the UK to finish a 7 year sentence for fraud and will appear in court in the coming days.
Crime Correspondent with the Sunday Times John Mooney says Gardaí are unlikely to make any moves to bring him back here.
“There isn’t the evidence really to charge him in relation to the Guerin killing” he said.
“The witnesses are in witness protection, they’ve been since discredited by the Special Criminal Court – so they’d be very unlikely to bring him back here”.
“To be perfectly honest with you, I would imagine that there were people in Garda Headquarters who really needed John Traynor popping up on the radar….like a hole in the head” he added.
