Europe’s ‘most wanted’ drug lord who once faked his death assassinated

Marco Ebben was found riddled with bullet wounds near Mexico City (Picture: Europol)

Marco Ebben was certainly one of Europe’s ‘most wanted’ men for smuggling drugs from Brazil to the Netherlands.

That’s until the Dutchman took his own life in October – or so authorities believed.

To flee arrest, the 32-year-old faked his own death within the Mexican cartel stronghold of Culiacan.

However it was on Thursday that his body was present in Atizapan de Zaragoza, a municipality about 15 miles from the capital Mexico City.

Ebben's body — The 32-year-old was assassinated by a rival gang, it is known

He is known to have been attacked by two hitmen as he headed to his armored truck in Plaza Antigua and shot to death.

His body was riddled with at the least 15 bullets and abandoned between two cars at a car parking zone.

Several fake IDs were discovered amongst his belongings on the scene of the assassination understood to have been planned by a rival gang.

Experts confirmed Ebben’s identity, an official on the state prosecutor’s office told AFP, asking to not be named because they weren’t authorised to speak concerning the case.

Ebben holding two guns — Ebben had been evading authorities for years and had lived in several countries

European law enforcement agency Europol had listed the drug lord as certainly one of the ‘most wanted fugitives’ on the continent.

Its website says he was sentenced in October 2020 to greater than seven years in prison.

Between 2014 and 2015, Ebben and his accomplices allegedly smuggled 400 kilos of cocaine in containers crammed with pineapples, in response to Europol.

His father, a notorious criminal from Schiedam, was sentenced to 11 years for bribing a customs official in the identical trial.

Ebben pictured with masked armed men — He reportedly joined Mexican drug gang Los Mayos

Each men had disappeared from the police radar by then, the El Diario de Mexico reported.

After fleeing to the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Italy and Turkey, Ebben reportedly joined Mexican drug gang Los Mayos, a part of the infamous Cártel de Sinaloa.

Authorities have yet to issue an official confirmation of the attack and his death.

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