Turkish mafia war spreads: from shooting in Estepona to execution in the middle of a street in Torrevieja

Caner Koçer, alleged leader of the Turkish gang Los Dalton, was shot dead this Sunday in the centre of Torrevieja in a planned execution. A few days earlier, in the car park of a supermarket in Estepona, another shooting between Turkish mafias set off the alarms of the security forces.

The Guardia Civil and the National Police are investigating whether both attacks are part of a open war between rival Turkish factions with ramifications in half of Europe, according to the newspaper Todo Alicante .

The Turkish organised crime gang put on a chilling show of force in Alicante province. Caner Koçer, 21, fell to the pavement after being shot in broad daylight in the centre of Torrevieja. There was no time to react: the attack was direct, planned and executed with precision.

In a matter of seconds, the perpetrators, aged 23, 30 and 35 and alleged members of the rival gang - Los Caspers - disappeared in a car at full speed. The vehicle had been stolen in France on 27 July and had its number plates swapped, using plates from another car with similar characteristics, according to sources close to the investigation. This is a common tactic among criminal gangs seeking anonymity while crossing borders.

After the crime, several patrols of the Local Police and the Guardia Civil of Torrevieja began a chase that soon intensified. The officers, aware that the suspects were armed, did not hesitate to continue the hunt on foot. A few minutes later, they managed to arrest the three gangsters, in an operation that was as quick as it was risky.

During their escape, the perpetrators threw one of the weapons to the ground. Another was located during a body search of one of the detainees. The third, the investigators suspect, was abandoned somewhere along the route. Uniformed officers recovered it hours later thanks to the cooperation of the public.

Meanwhile, at the scene of the crime, two officers tried to revive the injured man. Despite the joint effort with the medical staff, at 7.40pm, he was pronounced dead.

The first indications are that he was followed by his executioners. The stolen car, the firearms, the knowledge of the surroundings and the execution in broad daylight point to a settling of scores between Turkish criminal gangs.

The Armed Forces are collaborating with the drugs and organised crime unit (Udyco) of the National Police in Malaga, which is investigating a similar episode that occurred just two weeks earlier in Estepona. It is also working in coordination with law enforcement agencies in France, Germany and the Netherlands, where the suspects are said to have resided or committed crimes in the past.

According to SUR, several individuals riddled an Audi vehicle with bullets on Sunday 20 July. As many as 27 shots were fired according to investigators . One of the bullets wounded a passer-by who was not involved in the armed confrontation, another almost hit a girl and a third hit the façade of a house.

If the connection is confirmed, the Torrevieja murder would not be an isolated act, but a link in a chain of violent acts linked to an internal war within a transnational criminal organisation.

The investigation is being carried out by the territorial judicial police unit of the Guardia Civil of Torrevieja, with the collaboration of the crime unit of Alicante, the USECIC and the Guardia Civil of Torrevieja.

On Wednesday morning, the three arrested were handed over to the court of instruction number 4 of Torrevieja, while the ballistic analysis of the seized weapons and the reconstruction of the previous movements of the suspects continues.