Five people have been arrested for the murder of a Dutchman in Spain at the beginning of this year. The victim's body was found in January near Chiclana de la Frontera, not far from the city of Cádiz.

The Spanish police, the Guardia Civil, released the arrests on Wednesday, without naming the victim. It is therefore not clear whether it concerns the murder of the Utrecht drug trafficker Ebrahim Buzhu. The Public Prosecution Service cannot confirm this. "It is a Spanish investigation," said a spokesman for the National Public Prosecutor's Office. Buzhu was liquidated in Chiclana in January.

The Spanish news site ABC does mention his name and also mentions Buzhu's nickname: The Butcher. His origin is also mentioned.

According to the service, the shot Dutchman was "executed with a shot to the head to settle a bill for drug trafficking". After the murder, the getaway car was set on fire elsewhere in Chiclana. According to Spain, the victim was involved in the hashish trade between the Costa del Sol, the Netherlands and France.

The identity of the suspects has not yet been released. Two of them are suspected of murder, membership of a criminal organization and illegal possession of weapons. The three others would have helped. According to the Guardia Civil, the suspects traveled from the Netherlands to Málaga and rented the car used in the murder there.

Buzhu was a key witness against alleged top criminal Ridouan Taghi. In 2015, the Utrechter was the first to tell the police how powerful Taghi had become.