Mexico City:
A notorious Dutch drug trafficker, Marco Ebben, who was once listed as one of Europe’s most wanted criminals and had allegedly faked his own death, has been fatally shot in Mexico, as confirmed by an official on Friday.
The 32-year-old Ebben was gunned down on Thursday in Atizapan de Zaragoza, a municipality located around 25 kilometers from Mexico City.
Authorities have positively identified Ebben, with experts verifying his identity, although the official chose to remain anonymous due to unauthorized disclosure.
Europol, the European law enforcement agency, had previously categorized Ebben as one of Europe’s “most wanted fugitives” for his involvement in drug trafficking activities from Brazil to the Netherlands.
In October 2020, Ebben was handed a sentence of over seven years in prison for his criminal activities.
During the period between 2014 and 2015, Ebben and his associates were accused of smuggling 400 kilograms of cocaine concealed in pineapple-filled containers, according to Europol.
Reports suggest that Ebben had staged his own death in Culiacan, a stronghold of a Mexican cartel, during a violent confrontation between two factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, in order to avoid capture.
Despite claims by an alleged girlfriend who identified a body, no substantial evidence of Ebben’s demise was found at the time.
The recent surge in violence in Sinaloa is linked to the unexpected arrest of cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada in the United States in late July, which is believed to have triggered an internal power struggle within the cartel.
On a related note, Mexican authorities announced the apprehension of a suspected Sinaloa Cartel drug trafficker, known by aliases such as “El Chato,” “El Don,” or “El Viejon,” in the northern state of Chihuahua, who was wanted by the US.
(This article has been generated from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by NDTV staff, except for the headline.)
