Marco Ebben was one in every of Europe’s ‘most wished fugitives’ for smuggling medication from Brazil to the Netherlands.
A convicted drug kingpin from the Netherlands – thought-about one in every of Europe’s most wished criminals – has been killed in a gun battle in Mexico.
Marco Ebben, 32, was shot useless in Atizapan de Zaragoza, a municipality 25km (15 miles) from Mexico Metropolis, authorities mentioned on Friday.
Ebben, who as soon as faked his personal loss of life, was killed in a shootout in a parking lot exterior the Mexican capital on Thursday.
Specialists confirmed Ebben’s id, an official on the state prosecutor’s workplace instructed the AFP information company, asking to not be named as a result of they weren’t authorised to debate the case.
European legislation enforcement company Europol listed Ebben as one in every of Europe’s “most wished fugitives” for smuggling medication from Brazil to the Netherlands.
Its web site says he was sentenced in absentia in October 2020 to greater than seven years in jail. He had managed to evade arrest since that sentence was handed down.
In Could 2024, Ebben spoke to the Dutch regional broadcaster Rijnmond to say he had nothing to do with a collection of explosions concentrating on a plumber within the metropolis of Vlaardingen.
Between 2014 and 2015, Ebben and his accomplices allegedly smuggled 400kg (880 kilos) of cocaine in containers stuffed with pineapples, based on Europol.
To evade arrest, the Dutchman reportedly faked his loss of life final October within the Mexican cartel stronghold of Culiacan amid a turf battle between two factions of the Sinaloa Cartel.
In response to information experiences, Ebben was accused of hyperlinks to one of many factions however no proof of his loss of life was discovered on the time, apart from a press release from an alleged girlfriend who claimed to have recognised the physique.
The violence in Sinaloa follows the shock arrest on US soil of cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada in late July, which is believed to have unleashed an inside energy wrestle.
Additionally on Friday, Mexican authorities mentioned they arrested a suspected Sinaloa Cartel drug trafficker lively within the northern state of Chihuahua who was wished by america.
Mexican media recognized him as Humberto Rivera, alias “El Chato,” “El Don” or “El Viejon”.
