Estonian citizen Imre Arakas flew from Alicante to Dublin on 3 April 2017 to take part in a plot to murder James Gately in Northern Ireland. Gardaí arrested him the next day. The Irish conviction, prison term and eventual extradition were followed by a separate Lithuanian murder conviction in 2025.
A record stretching back decades
The Special Criminal Court heard that Arakas had a longstanding criminal record. It included a 1979 bodily-harm conviction, a 15-year Soviet-era term covering theft, escape from prison, destruction of documents, hooliganism, attempted vehicle theft and firearms, and later firearms sentences in 1997 and 2011.
He was living in Spain before the Irish operation. Intelligence from Europol and Spanish and Estonian police caused Gardaí to place him under surveillance when he landed in Dublin.
The Irish murder conspiracy
After arriving on 3 April 2017, Arakas went to a west-Dublin safe house, bought a wig and mirror, and exchanged encrypted messages about a planned shooting. The target was James Gately and the conspiracy was to carry out the killing in Northern Ireland.
Armed Gardaí arrested Arakas on 4 April. Investigators photographed messages on a device before its contents were remotely wiped. On 12 November 2018 he pleaded guilty at the non-jury Special Criminal Court to conspiracy to murder. One month later he received six years, backdated to his arrest.
Release, warrant and extradition
Arakas completed the Irish sentence with ordinary remission. A six-year face-value comparison is therefore not the same as time actually served. In November 2022 the High Court ordered his surrender under a European Arrest Warrant; Gardaí handed him to Lithuanian authorities at Dublin Airport on 4 January 2023.
Reporting on that warrant referred to Lithuanian allegations connected with the killing of Deimantas Bugavičius. Those reports did not establish an Irish or Lithuanian conviction for that killing and this file does not present the allegation as one.
A later, separate Lithuanian conviction
On 20 January 2025 a Lithuanian court convicted Arakas of murdering mixed-martial-arts fighter Remigijus Morkevičius, attempting to murder another man identified as G.Z., and firearms offences. He received ten years and was ordered, with others, to meet civil awards totalling €150,000. RTÉ reported in June 2026 that he was serving that term.
The Lithuanian conviction is separate from the Irish conspiracy case. The importance of the record is the enforcement chain: pre-arrival intelligence, rapid surveillance and arrest in Ireland, conviction, imprisonment, a later EAW and surrender to another EU state.
Chronology
- 1979 onward: Estonian and Soviet-era convictions begin a decades-long record.
- 3 April 2017: Flies Alicante to Dublin and is placed under surveillance.
- 4 April 2017: Arrested by armed Gardaí.
- 12 November 2018: Pleads guilty to conspiracy to murder.
- 12 December 2018: Six years imposed, backdated to arrest.
- November 2022: High Court orders surrender on a Lithuanian EAW.
- 4 January 2023: Extradited from Dublin Airport.
- 20 January 2025: Convicted and sentenced in Lithuania in the Morkevičius case.
Cost benchmark
The nominal six-year Irish sentence represents a gross staffed-prison-space comparison of €594,432 at the Irish Prison Service’s 2024 average of €99,072 a year. An illustrative 4½-year term after ordinary remission would be €445,824.
Questions the record leaves
- What did the multinational surveillance, prosecution and extradition process cost?
- What controls enabled police intelligence to reach Gardaí quickly enough for the 2017 arrest?
- Could the same cross-border warning process be applied consistently to other serious offenders?
- What information was exchanged after his release and before Lithuania sought surrender?