Liverpool gangster Sonny Redmond has consented to his extradition to Spain during a short hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court, where no submissions were made. The 33-year-old, from Bootle, was shot multiple times in an underground car park in Lomas de Cabo Roig on December 11 last year, an attack from which he escaped death.
Shooting details and aftermath
Redmond was shot at between 10 and 15 times, suffering injuries to his arms, legs and chest. He was taken to hospital with serious injuries. The shooting took place at the Royal Park Green Spa complex, 14 streets away from where many believed it occurred.
Shortly before the attack, Redmond was seen as a passenger in a black Range Rover with British plates. A local resident, referred to as John, described seeing the vehicle about an hour and a half before the shooting. John told the ECHO: "I told the bloke who was driving I had a description of the car and part of its registration but he just shrugged it off, he wasn't bothered. I thought it was really odd, we're talking about a £100,000 car and he wasn't bothered."
Alleged crimes in Spain
Redmond is alleged to have changed his name to Peter Fullerlove while in Spain. He was named as one of two men allegedly involved in an armed raid on a San Fulgencio cannabis club in October 2024, where the pair allegedly wielded machine guns and made off with cash and €5,000 worth of products. The Olive Press reported 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 apprehended following a standoff where he was said to have taken an elderly couple hostage. The ECHO understands the shooting of Redmond is linked to the killing of a 29-year-old British man whose body was discovered with several bullet wounds at a housing development in the Campoamor area of Alicante on December 21.
Return to UK and legal proceedings
Following his brush with death, Redmond reappeared in Merseyside in January this year, where he was arrested by Merseyside Police on suspicion of being in possession of a knife and mobile phone in HMP Liverpool. He was subsequently charged and placed on remand. However, when the case came to court, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) offered no evidence and the case was dropped.
This was when Redmond was detained under a Spanish arrest warrant. He appeared in Westminster Magistrates' Court this week, where he consented to his extradition. Redmond's brush with law enforcement is nothing new, with the ECHO reporting on a gang injunction served to him in a Merseyside court in 2015 before he was added to Merseyside Police's most wanted list in 2021.
Criminal enclave in Orihuela Costa
The ECHO spent days investigating criminality in this part of Spain, with several sources explaining how criminals from across the world are now seeking refuge in Orihuela Costa, as opposed to the traditional Costa del Sol hideouts in the likes of Marbella and Fuengirola. Vicki Reilly, who has lived in the Orihuela Costa for nearly 30 years, said: "There is a lot of crime here because the first thing that anybody does, whoever they are, when they commit a crime, is leave the country, don't they? That's what they do.
"We hear a lot of complaints in the UK about immigrants coming, you know, and [claims that] they've committed crimes in other countries. But that's what people do here, they commit a crime and, so, what's the easiest country to go to [for British people]? It's Spain." She added: "We call it the Gatwick diploma. So, you get on the plane at Gatwick, and by the time you get off the plane in Alicante, you're a completely different person."
Speaking on the violence the area has seen in the last 18 months, journalist David Pamies, from the Spanish outlet Información, said: "For maybe a couple of years it's very dangerous or it seems more dangerous, or the feeling of insecurity is higher, and then it calms down. During the last 30 years, that has happened in several periods. This [violence in the Orihuela Costa], it's true that it seems like there's like an escalation, in the sense of what you're talking about, because sometimes, revenge or settling of scores has spilled over to people who had nothing to do with it."
