Marco Ebben, who was considered one of Europe’s most wanted criminals, was killed in Mexico by unidentified gunmen, reports said. The 32-year-old convicted drug kingpin has been at large ever since he was reportedly sentenced to seven years in jail for smuggling 400 kilos of cocaine from Brazil to the Netherlands.
Más de 15 tiros le dieron a Marco Ebben, narco holandés ligado a los Mayos:
— Antonio Nieto (@siete_letras) February 13, 2025
Había fingido su muerte varias veces. A las 11:40 de hoy 2 sicarios le dispararon con armas .223 y .9mm cuando caminaba a su camioneta blindada en Plaza Antigua, @GobAtizapan. pic.twitter.com/NGXYnLb1B2
Marco Ebben was shot 15 times at an underground car park in Atizapan de Zaragoza, a municipality 25km from Mexico City on Thursday, Al Jazeera quoted authorities as saying on Friday.
Citing the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol), Al Jazeera said that Marco Ebben's crew smuggled 400kg of cocaine to Europe between 2014 and 2015. His modus operandi was to hide the drugs under containers carrying pineapples.
His father is also a notorious man from Schiedam in the western Netherlands who was sentenced to 11 years for bribing a customs official in order to sabotage the investigation against Ebben, Dutchnews.nl said in a report. However, he too escaped the country and remains untraced, the report added.
After escaping the Netherlands, Ebben is believed to have lived in Dubai, Russia, Italy and Turkey before arriving in Mexico. He decided to sell his expertise in smuggling for Cártel de Sinaloa -- a prominent drug cartel in Mexico. The cartel attached him to the Los Mayos gang, Dutchnews.nl said.
LE FALLARON SUS ESCOLTAS EXMILITARES… y lo ABANDONARON
— Carlos Jiménez (@c4jimenez) February 13, 2025
Los 4 tipos q cuidaban al narco Marco Ebben no lo defendieron.
Cuando lo vieron muerto se fueron.
Este era su depa.@PoliciaAtizapan @SEMAR_mx y @FiscaliaEdomex los detuvieron.
2 son exagentes d @SEDENAmx
El caso… pic.twitter.com/70cFvLbuQZ
According to Al Jazeera, Ebben's death is likely to be the consequence of ongoing factionalism and turf war within the Sinaloa cartel. He had faked his death in October to save himself from the rival faction but his luck seemed to have run out on Thursday when armed assailants caught up with him. Fake identity papers were found beside his dead body, media reports said.
