Marco Eben was one of Europe’s most wanted fugitives for drug smuggling from Brazil to the Netherlands.
The Dutch convicted drug lord Kingpin – considered one of Europe’s most wanted criminals – was killed in a shootout in Mexico.
Marco Eben, 32, was shot dead in Atizapan de Zaragoza, a municipality 25km (15 miles) from Mexico City, authorities said Friday.
Eben, who once fakes his own death, was killed in a shootout in a parking lot outside the Mexican capital on Thursday.
Experts have confirmed Eben’s identity, officials from the state prosecutor’s office told AFP news agency, asking him not to be named as he is not authorized to discuss the lawsuit.
European law enforcement agency Europol has listed Ebben as one of Europe’s “most wanted fugitives” for smuggling drugs from Brazil to the Netherlands.
According to the website, he was sentenced in prison in October 2020 in more than seven years without absentia. He managed to avoid an arrest since the sentence was handed down.
In May 2024, Ebben spoke with Dutch regional broadcaster Lysinmond and said it had nothing to do with the series of explosions targeting plumbers in the city of Uraldingen.
According to Europol, between 2014 and 2015, Ebben and his accomplice allegedly smuggled 400 kg (880 pounds) of cocaine into a container filled with pineapple.
To avoid arrest, the Dutch reportedly died last October at the Mexican cartel Culiacan base in October, amid a lawn war between two factions of the Sinaloa cartel.
News reports show that Eben was accused of ties with one of the factions, but no evidence of his death was found, except for a statement from his girlfriend who claimed he had claimed to have recognized his body.
The violence in Sinaloa follows the surprising arrest of cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada in late July in the US soil.
Also on Friday, Mexican authorities said they had arrested a suspected Sinaloa cartel drug trafficker operating in the Northern Chihuahua state, who was appointed by the US.
Mexican media identified him as Humbel Rivera, aka “Elchato”, “Eldon” or “Elviejon.”
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