End of the run: three killers of the "Mocro Maffia" arrested on their way to Morocco

The hunt was quick and effective. Just 72 hours after an attempted assassination carried out on December 15 in Genk, in northeastern Belgium, the alleged perpetrators were located more than 1,500 kilometers away. The suspects, considered extremely dangerous and potentially armed, had fled in a family vehicle belonging to the mother of two of them. Their plan was simple: cross Spain to reach the Andalusian coast and board a ferry, hoping to blend in once they arrived on Moroccan soil. But European police cooperation decided otherwise, leading to their interception in the Salamanca neighborhood of Madrid.

This arrest once again highlights the unheard-of violence of the methods of the "Mocro Maffia", warns El Debate. This criminal network, which has made the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam its hubs to flood Europe with cocaine, is no longer content with just trafficking. It now relies on specialized branches in "sicariat", squadrons of killers tasked with eliminating the competition. It is in this context of a territorial war that the Genk shooting, in which a rival trafficker was seriously injured, takes place. A violence that is becoming endemic, with Brussels recording more than fifty shootings this year.

The profiles arrested in Madrid are not isolated cases, but links in a brutal chain already involved in high-profile cases. Investigators link this executive branch to other media cases, such as the attempted assassination of former Spanish politician Alejo Vidal-Quadras in 2023, or the spectacular escape of Yousef Mohamed Lehrech, known as "El Pastilla", from the Alcalá-Meco prison.