Man held in Spain over shooting

The men were shot dead in March 2006 (Pic: MEN)

A man has been arrested in Spain in connection with a gangland shooting in a Salford pub in which two men died.

The 40-year-old man was arrested by Spanish police under a European arrest warrant on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder.

Carlton Alveranga, 20, and Richard Austin, 19, were ordered to kill two men in the Brass Handles pub in March 2006 - but failed and ended up dead.

Police said the arrested man remains in Spain awaiting formal extradition.

Constance Howarth, 39, of Rosalind Court in Salford and Ian George McLeod, 44, of Victoria Street in Radcliffe, who hired the hitmen, were both found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder at Preston Crown Court earlier this year.

They are both serving life sentences.

Masked gunmen

A third defendant, Warren Mason, 24, of Jackson Street, Kearsley, near Bolton, was acquitted of the same charge.

Police had also named a fourth man wanted in connection with the shooting.

During their trial, Preston Crown Court was told how the masked gunmen Alveranga and Austin stormed into the busy pub in Edgehill Close, Langworthy, on 12 March 2006.

While Alveranga kept look out at the door inside the bar, Austin fired a number of shots at their targets David Totton and Andrew Travers as they sat at a table, seriously wounding them.

The gunmen were then shot in the ensuing melee, before they ran out of the pub and died on grassland outside.