This was the journey to the Costa del Sol of a juvenile Belgian 'hitman' who escaped the crime scene on a bicycle

Juvenile offenders are usually placed in reform centres, where a team of psychologists and educators dive into their behaviour and family environment to try to straighten the crooked tree. Some succeed and the teenagers reach adulthood leaving behind a problematic past. Others, like S., do not.

The journey that plunged him further into the criminal underworld began precisely on the day he decided to escape from a juvenile detention centre in Belgium. At the age of 17, having tasted freedom again, he received an assignment that would allegedly take him several rungs up the criminal ladder.

National Police officers have been able to reconstruct every step of the macabre plan in a highly complex international investigation. However, they are still trying to find out what S. was promised in return for executing the order. From experience, the police know that such jobs are offered on private Telegram channels.

On 7 December 2024, S. boarded a plane. He took off from Eindhoven mid-afternoon and landed at Malaga Airport a couple of hours before the crime happened. According to the police, he was picked up by a young Dutchman (we will call him C.) who had been hired as a guide on the ground.

They went to Fuengirola, where the target was located in a cannabis club a few metres from the promenade. They then went to a hotel where the weapon was waiting for S. - a new and clean assault rifle, like those used by the US Army.

Although it has not been possible to verify it, police suspect that it was acquired on the black market, probably from the war in Ukraine. The question of how it got to the hotel has also been answered. It was brought into Spain by three young, pretty girls who travelled by car from Paris so as not to arouse suspicion. In addition to transporting the weapon, they were responsible for all the logistics.

The investigators suspect that the perpetrator of the crime, i.e. the hooded boy who showed up on the night of 7 December at the door of the cannabis club wielding the rifle, was S.

The teenager reportedly took advantage of a supposed customer leaving to gain access to the establishment. According to the police reconstruction, the victim noticed that he was hooded and with a rifle in his hand and so he hurried to close the door. The assailant kicked him and even fired a few shots, but he did not manage to get in.

The victim returned inside the establishment, where people started shouting and looking for a way out. They even tore some awnings to try and get out onto Calle Asturias, but they ended up in a death trap.

The hitman decided to go ahead with the plan. According to sources, he circled the premises looking for his target. Around the corner, he shot down a young Dutchman who was simply the first to come out onto the street.

Investigators were able to reconstruct the murder thanks to security cameras at the club. The supposed customer, who had opened the door, did not seem to flinch when he came across a hooded man armed with a rifle. The police suspected that he was the bait. We will call him G.

After the murder, the perpetrator threw the gun under a car and fled on a bicycle. According to the investigation, he later abandoned the bike, continued on foot and eventually took a taxi. He then entered a bar, where he waited until the next morning.

His cronies went to look for him the next day. The three - the minor (S.), the accomplice (C.) and the bait (G.) - went to a shop, purchased bottles of whisky and went to a party in a hotel on the coast.

Barely 48 hours after the crime, the teenager left Spain with C. They travelled by bus from Malaga to Paris and from there to the Netherlands.

G. had reportedly already begun to make arrangements to leave the country, but it took the police fewer than four days to identify and arrest him in Torremolinos.

By then, the police already knew that C. had been the coordinator of the crime in Spain. However, they discovered that he had been receiving orders from another individual, also a young man of Dutch nationality (O.). O. was the brains of the operation.

When C. was identified, he was already in the Netherlands, so the Spanish police asked the Dutch authorities for international cooperation.

Three weeks later, around Christmas, another murder took place in Amsterdam. The Dutch police linked C. to that crime and even intercepted a conversation that revealed that the man killed in Fuengirola had been the wrong target. "Don't make the same mistake as in Spain," O. told C.

Subsequently, Dutch authorities found C.'s hideout. The raid took place in the early hours of the morning. While they were preparing the operation to arrest him for the crimes in Amsterdam and Fuengirola, C. came out of the house and reportedly started shooting at the police forces.

One of the officers was shot in the chest three times, but the rounds only hit his bulletproof vest. C. was also shot and when he fell to the ground, his brother, who had been in the hideout with him, picked up the gun and continued firing shots. A stray bullet ended up seriously wounding a woman who was in the area. The young man was eventually arrested.

The two investigations eventually led to O., who was arrested and imprisoned in the Netherlands. The three young women, who had been in charge of transport and accommodation, were also arrested.