Five more arrested, in addition to juvenile shooter, in connection with contract killing on Costa del Sol
Investigators have revealed that another of those involved in the crime died in a shootout with Dutch police, but now consider the death of a young man solved with the latest arrests
The National Police have announced that the murder of a 25-year-old Dutch man in Fuengirola in December 2024 has been solved. In addition to the arrest of a minor - as SUR has already reported - investigators have arrested five other people for their alleged involvement in the incident. There is another person involved who will not be brought to justice because he died months later after being shot by the Dutch police.
The crime took place in the early hours of 7 December 2024 in Fuengirola, when the victim was killed in the middle of the street by multiple shots fired from an assault rifle. Together with the body, the weapon used and the shell casings were recovered.
The first investigations revealed that the victim worked in a cannabis club located next to the crime scene. In the early hours of that morning he was inside with two other employees of the club, at which time the perpetrator, dressed in black and with his face covered, was waiting nearby.
The assailant threw the rifle under a nearby vehicle and fled on a bicycle
Once the last customer had left the club, he fired several shots at the victim at the entrance door of the establishment, who managed to close it, according to the National Police. During the attack, the victim was shot multiple times as he was surprised by the assailant, who then threw the rifle under a nearby vehicle and fled on a bicycle.
Although the specific motivation is unknown, the evidence allowed the officers to link the events to a possible settling of scores within Dutch organised crime, which led to the identification of the perpetrators in just four days.
Contracted in the Netherlands
The alleged perpetrator, a Belgian minor, had been recruited in the Netherlands to carry out the crime in Spain. Two other Dutch nationals acted as direct co-operators.
On 11 December 2024, four days after the murder, as a result of a strong operation deployed with the support of the Malaga special operational security group, one of the Dutch suspects was arrested in Torremolinos and remanded in custody. In addition, the officers verified that the Belgian minor, the alleged perpetrator of the shooting, had changed his appearance and fled to the Netherlands together with another accomplice.
Police investigations revealed that, after the murder, two of those involved fled from Spain to France and then to the Netherlands. Cooperation with the Dutch police and the establishment of a task force to locate all those involved led to the linking of one of them to another murder committed in Amsterdam weeks later. During the operation to arrest him, he opened fire on the officers and was shot dead after seriously wounding a policeman and a woman who was not involved in the incident.
The international investigation has established that both the murder in Spain and the subsequent murder in the Netherlands were allegedly organised by a Dutch man, who was arrested on 3 January 2025 and is currently in prison in the Netherlands as the instigator of both crimes.
It was also proven that three Dutch women transported the rifle used in Fuengirola from Paris, collaborating in the logistics of the execution. For this reason, they were arrested in Amsterdam on 17 June 2025.
Finally, the alleged perpetrator of the shooting was located and arrested in Ghent (Belgium) on 20 June 2025 under a European Arrest Warrant. He was transferred to Spain on 11 July. Since then, he has been held in a closed juvenile detention centre.
