'Undercover German police officer tortured and murdered in Spain' October 8, 2023
An undercover German police officer was tortured and murdered on Spain's Costa del Sol in the summer of last year. According to research by WDR and NDR, the 33-year-old Serb was an undercover police officer in Hesse, who was used to infiltrate drug networks.
Cannabis and cocaine The police in Hesse are said to have specifically deployed the Serb to investigate an international drug network that allegedly traded cannabis, cocaine and other drugs on a large scale. The information provided by the murdered police informant is said to have already been processed in various investigations.
Holiday home The life of undercover agent Aleksandar K. ended on a chair in a holiday apartment in the southern Spanish city of Marbella. With a plastic bag over his head and his hands and feet tied, the Serb is said to have been tortured for days before being shot twice in the head.
German residence permit On June 30, 2022, a day after the murder, the landlord discovered the body. It took the Spanish police some time to identify the dead man. He had no identity papers with him, but a German residence permit was reportedly found in the apartment in the holiday complex.
Drug trafficking According to research by WDR and NDR, the Serb worked as an informant for the police in Hesse. Aleksandar K., who last lived in Offenbach in Hesse, is said to have been involved in the drug trafficking of a European network and had to provide information about the activities of the drug gangs on behalf of the police in Hesse.
Intercepted communications It is still unclear why K. was murdered on the Costa del Sol last year. The Serb may have been exposed before his murder. The police in Hesse are now said to have evidence, including from intercepted telephone conversations, that K. allegedly confessed to his murderers under torture that he had worked as an informant for the German police.
Convicted lawyer The undercover agent also played a role in the trial of Frankfurt lawyer Benjamin D., who was sentenced to seven years and nine months in prison by the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court in July for drug trafficking and money laundering.
The court found it proven that the 46-year-old lawyer had helped organize drug transport from Spain to the Rhine-Main area. D., together with other suspects, is said to have set up a kind of shipping company with which drugs, especially cannabis, were smuggled from the region around Barcelona to Germany.
“Ignacio Varga” Benjamin D. is said to have carried out the drug transports mainly via encrypted EncroChat messages. There he called himself “Ignacio Varga”, after a criminal character from the American crime series Better Call Saul. D. made an extensive confession in court, reporting on his cocaine addiction and heavy alcohol use, and how he became increasingly involved in the criminal environment from 2018 onwards.
D. regularly provided legal advice to drug dealers and acted as an intermediary between the smugglers. One of his contacts is said to have been undercover agent Aleksandar K.
The German authorities do not want to comment on the case to WDR and NDR. It remains unclear whether and how the police in Hesse used the Serb shortly before his death. The Hanau Public Prosecution Service is investigating the murder.
Montenegrin drug clans According to reports in the Spanish media, the criminal investigation initially pointed to a drug war that has been raging for years between two rival families from Kotor (Montenegro). Several assassination attempts in Spain, the Balkans, Turkey, the Netherlands and other countries are said to have been carried out by these drug cartels, which are fighting with extreme brutality for their position in the European cocaine market. Aleksandar K. may have fallen victim to that rivalry and been exposed as a police informant before his death.
Fugitive Several suspects who allegedly first tortured and then shot dead Aleksandar K. were identified through forensic investigations at the crime scene, fingerprints and recordings from the resort's surveillance cameras. Spanish and German authorities assume that at least one suspect is a member of an outlaw motorcycle club. The suspects are on the run.
Concern The use of informants by the German police is currently a thorny issue for the federal government. According to the wishes of the Federal Ministry of Justice, led by the German Federal Police, the use of recruited and often paid informants should be better regulated by law through clear guidelines.
A preliminary report of a new law regulating the use of undercover agents and confidential counselors was sent to the federal Ministry of the Interior in July.
'Undercover German police officer tortured and murdered in Spain' added by – onOctober 8, 2023
