Gardai are looking for the gangland's most prolific hitman, suspected of at least ten murders -- including eight in Ireland.

Gardai want to quiz psycho killer Eric 'Lucky' Wilson over a spate of unsolved murders here, which they believe he carried out as a 'freelance' assassin.

Wilson was convicted of blasting 24-year-old British criminal Daniel Smith to death in a packed Spanish bar and now faces a potential 25-year jail term, the Herald can reveal.

The victim was shot a number of times in a row over a woman.

Wilson (27), who has been on the run from gardai since 2006, could then be be extradited back to Ireland.

They also want to charge him over a major firearms seizure in Co Carlow that year and also a serious assault in Co Laois in 2004.

A senior source explained: "Eric Wilson is the most prolific gun-for-hire in the history of Irish organised crime. He is completely ruthless, psychotic and had a solid reputation of always getting his man."

Detectives from the NBCI travelled to Spain earlier this year to question him about these killings, but Wilson refused to meet them when they arrived at the jail he was in.

The hitman, from Cremona Road, Ballyfermot, is suspected of working for a number of Ireland's most dangerous drugs gangs and regularly travelling back and forward from Spain's Costa-Del-Sol to Ireland with a false passport before his arrest in Fuengirola last June.

These gangs include the northside crews that were led by slain crime lords Martin 'Marlo' Hyland and Eamon 'The Don' Dunne as well as notorious hood Paul 'Burger' Walsh's drugs gang.

Wilson has also worked for the godfather of Irish crime Christy Kinahan, and 'Fat' Freddie Thompson's mob.

However he has always been closest to the current 'Mr Big' of Irish crime -- a shadowy major league criminal who is aged in his 50s and has made millions of euro by importing illegal cigarettes into Ireland.

Feud

Sources say that 'Mr Big' has been a "mentor and financial backer" of Wilson since the hitman was only a child but has "left him to hang out to dry" because of the reckless murder in Spain of Daniel Smith which 'Mr Big' considered "highly stupid", according to sources.

'Mr Big', who has major Provo credentials, cannot be named for legal reasons but he was in involved in a bitter feud with the Real IRA last summer which led to two murders and a number of shooting incidents.

This feud has now eased and 'Mr Big' spends most of his time in Spain where he was regularly spotted in 'Lucky' Wilson's company before he was locked up last June.

Sources have confirmed that Wilson is the chief suspect for two gang murders in Co Louth in 2006 and 2007 -- that of Paul Reay and Roy Coddington.

Drug dealer Reay was shot dead in November 2006 on the orders of Finglas gang boss Hyland -- himself shot dead later that year.

The 26-year-old father-of- three was hit three times in the chest after the car he was travelling in was waved down by a gunman posing as a road worker just outside Drogheda, Co Louth.

Gardai believe Reay was targeted because his killers thought he tipped off detectives about a major drugs haul seized near Athboy, Co Meath, in 2005.

Drug dealer Coddington (36) was shot twice in the face and once in the chest at Mornington beach, Co Meath in March 2007.

Sources also suspect that Wilson was involved in the abduction, torture and murder of criminals David 'Babyface' Lindsay and Alan 'Whacker' Napper, who disappeared without trace almost three years ago.

Gardai believe the unfortunate duo were murdered in a house in Co Down on the orders of the notorious drugs trafficker, nicknamed 'The Panda' by the media, after they threatened to kidnap his mother.

Sources say that once Lindsay and Napper were tortured and shot, their bodies were cut up and dumped in the Irish Sea.

Gardai have also been investigating Wilson's links to the murder of King Ratt gang enforcer Anthony Cannon (26) who was gunned down in Ballyfermot in July 2009 on the orders of the 'Fat' Freddie gang.

Gruesome

Another Ballyfermot murder linked to Wilson is that of Martin Kenny (22) who was shot dead as he slept beside his girlfriend in May 2005.

Sources have also confirmed that gardai have investigated if Wilson was responsible for shooting dead gangland figure Andrew 'Madser' Glennon (30) in Blanchardstown just a fortnight before Kenny's murder.

Another gruesome murder that Wilson is suspected of is that of north inner city hood Christopher Gilroy (36) who disappeared without trace in Spain in February 2009.

Wilson is also suspected of involvement in shooting a man dead in the Crumlin area over a decade ago when he was just a teenager. This victim is understood to have given a female cousin of Wilson's a beating.

And a very close associate of Wilson is a feared gangster from the south inner city who is the chief suspect for abducting and murdering 19-year-old Romanian girl Marioara Rostas in January 2008.