Marco Ebben, top of Europol’s most wanted list, was killed in a car park shootout in Atizapan de Zaragoza, Mexico, nearly five years after he was sentenced over drugs trafficking charges
One of Europe’s most wanted drug lords has been shot down in Mexico after five years fleeing justice.
Marco Ebben was sentenced to seven years in 2020 for his alleged part in a plot to smuggle 400kg of cocaine inside tubs of pineapples, but has never served a single day. The convicted kingpin even faked his own death to escape police last year.
The Dutch national was shot in Atizapan de Zaragoza, outside Mexico City, earlier this week, according to reports. The 32-year-old had been walking towards his armoured car when he was targeted, in what is understood to have been a planned hit by a rival gang.
Ebben was recently placed on the top of Europol’s list of most wanted fugitives following years of being linked to international organised crime – including Mexico’s infamous Sinaloa cartel. In 2020, he was convicted in absentia over the cocaine in pineapples smuggling attempt in a suspected drug trafficking route between Brazil and his home country the Netherlands.
Graphic images have been circulated online appearing to show Ebben’s body on the floor of a car park after he was shot. His death was confirmed by the state prosecutor’s office. Ebben has for months been suspected of living in the country under a new identity after reports he faked his death in the city of Culiacan last October amidst a turf war between two factions of the organisation.
It comes after authorities in the city announced earlier this month they had arrested a pilot suspected of working for cartel Los Chapitos – a faction of the Sinaloa cartel run by sons of jailed kingpin Joaquín ‘”El Chapo” Guzmán. Known under the alias ‘El Jando, the pilot was detained in an operation which also saw one soldier shot dead.
El Jando is reported to have been a senior figure in El Chapitos at the time of his arrest on Saturday last weekend. He was detained awaiting court documents to be prepared. Violence has seen an uprising in the cartel in recent months following the surprise arrest of co-founder Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada in July, resulting in a power vacuum which has led to brutal in-fighting.
