His key witness testimony in 2015 helped put one of Europe’s most feared drug lords behind bars.

It’s no stretch to say that Ebrahim Buzhu, aka the ‘Butcher of Amsterdam’, would have spent the rest of his life looking over his shoulder – had he been permitted to live it.

Some seven years after helping convict Ridouan Taghi, one of the most feared bosses of the Mocro Mafia, he was mercilessly assassinated.

The body of Buzhu was found dumped in 2022 on a path in Chiclana de la Frontera – an idyllic town in Cadiz popular with British expats and tourists.

Now, a trial of the accused killers will determine whether his murder was an ordered hit.

Who was Ebrahim Buzhu?

Buzhu was a Dutch national of Moroccan origin and was known as ‘the butcher of Amsterdam‘ because of his father, who after spending several years in Melilla emigrated to the Amsterdam and opened a butcher’s shop.

Buzhu, however, chose a different path, becoming involved in drug trafficking.

In 2015, after testifying against Taghi – one of the most powerful figures in the Dutch criminal underworld – Buzhu fled to the Costa del Sol, settling in Malaga, where he continued to profit from cocaine and hashish trafficking.

He worked with criminal groups of Moroccan and Algerian origin that controlled drug routes between the Netherlands and Belgium.

Although Taghi was eventually imprisoned, Buzhu remained fearful, worried about reprisals or a possible settling of scores for cooperating with the authorities.

How was he killed?

In January 2022, residents walking along a rural track in the Pago del Humo area, on the outskirts of Chiclana de la Frontera, discovered the body of a man and raised the alarm.

The victim had been shot at point-blank range in the head. A single bullet entered through his left temple and exited at the right occipital area, according to findings by the Guardia Civil during the investigation known as Operation Stoom.

Around nine kilometres from where the body was found, officers later located the victim’s car, completely burned out between two abandoned warehouses in an industrial estate, after it had been set alight using fuel.

Investigators confirmed the deceased was Ebrahim Buzhu, a Dutch national known as ‘the butcher of Amsterdam’.

He had been a protected witness after exposing the activities of the so-called Mocro Mafia, an international criminal network involved in drug trafficking in the Netherlands.

Buzhu’s court testimony was key to the imprisonment of the Dutch crime boss Ridouan Taghi.

In June 2022, police arrested five people allegedly linked to the execution. Two of them were remanded in custody by order of Chiclana’s Mixed Court No. 1, a measure that was extended in June 2024.

Both now face trial by jury at the Audiencia Provincial de Cadiz, although a hearing date has yet to be set.

The Cadiz Public Prosecutor’s Office believes the two defendants are responsible for one count of murder, one count of criminal damage by arson, and a further offence of illegal possession of firearms. Prosecutors are seeking a combined sentence of 28 years in prison for each of them.

What happened on the day of the hit?

According to the prosecution’s indictment, on January 15, 2022 the accused, carrying an unlicensed handgun, travelled with Ebrahim Buzhu in a Kia Sportage rented by the victim in Malaga, heading to the province of Cadiz.

Once in Chiclana, between 3.08pm and 3.22pm, the defendants, ‘acting in concert’, shot Ebrahim in the left temple while he was seated in the front passenger seat of the vehicle.

The victim, ‘outnumbered by his attackers and intimidated by the presence of the weapon that ended his life, died instantly, without the slightest chance to defend himself’, the prosecutor states.

The indictment specifies that ‘the bullet passed through his skull, causing an entry wound in the left temple and an exit wound in the right occipital area, resulting in the destruction of brain tissue and his immediate death’.

Immediately after the killing, prosecutors claim, the defendants drove away from the scene in the Kia with the body inside.

After travelling around six kilometres, they turned onto a dead-end track in a rural area of Chiclana where, ‘taking advantage of the remoteness of the location, they abandoned the lifeless body beside a clump of reeds at the most concealed part of the path’.

They then drove approximately nine kilometres away and, at around 4pm, parked the vehicle in an alley between two abandoned warehouses in an inactive industrial estate.

‘There, with the intention of eliminating identifying evidence, they set fire to the vehicle using diesel as an accelerant,’ the prosecution states.

The car was completely destroyed by the blaze. Shortly afterwards, the defendants switched off their mobile phones.

The prosecution is also seeking joint and several compensation payments of €130,000 to Buzhu’s widow, €122,000 to his son, and €20,000 to his sister.

Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.