Sat Feb 15 03:25:04 UTC 2025: ## Notorious Dutch Drug Lord, Marco Ebben, Murdered in Mexico
**Mexico City –** Marco Ebben, a 32-year-old Dutch drug trafficker and one of Europe’s most wanted criminals, was shot and killed Thursday in Atizapán de Zaragoza, Mexico, a state prosecutor confirmed Friday. Ebben, who was previously reported to have faked his own death, had been convicted *in absentia* in the Netherlands in October 2020 to over seven years in prison for smuggling hundreds of kilos of cocaine from Brazil.
Europol had listed Ebben among its most wanted fugitives. His alleged smuggling operation, active between 2014 and 2015, involved concealing 400 kilograms of cocaine within pineapple shipments. Last October, he reportedly staged his own death in Culiacán, a notorious stronghold of the Sinaloa Cartel, amidst a violent internal power struggle fueled by the recent arrest of cartel co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada in the US. While an alleged girlfriend claimed to have identified his body at the time, no evidence supporting his death was ever found.
Mexican authorities confirmed Ebben’s identity following his murder. The killing comes amid escalating violence in Sinaloa and follows the recent arrest of another suspected Sinaloa Cartel member, Humberto Rivera, alias El Chato, in Chihuahua. The ongoing cartel conflict is believed to be contributing to the rising crime in the region.
First Piper 