Walter Finch
A TEENAGER has been arrested in northern Europe for allegedly gunning down a man on the Costa del Sol – the first confirmed case in Spain of a minor carrying out a contract killing.
Spanish police believe the 17-year-old, originally from northern Europe, was one of two gunmen who shot dead a Dutch national in Fuengirola shortly before 2am on December 7 last year.
The victim was sprayed with bullets from an assault rifle on Calle Asturias, just metres from the town’s seafront promenade.
Dozens of shell casings were left on the ground and officers later found a long gun hidden under a parked car.
Malaga’s hardened anti-organised crime cops, working with Dutch authorities, identified the suspects and issued international arrest warrants.
One of them fled Spain the day after the killing but was recently detained abroad and now faces extradition.
According to investigators, the teenager was hired to kill – a disturbing milestone in the trend of organised crime groups using children for contract murders.
Until now, Spanish authorities had managed to prevent such killings.
The Olive Press has reported extensively on foiled plots involving Scandinavian minors sent to the Costa del Sol.
In one case last August, a Swedish boy was stopped while riding an e-scooter towards his target in Malaga.
In another, police swooped on a Swedish youth as he strolled down a street in Benalmadena carrying shopping bags, just hours after he’d flown in from Gothenburg.
READ MORE: Scottish ‘Tinder rapist’ arrested while working out on Costa del Sol beach stands trial in the UK
Undercover officers tracked him from the moment he arrived in Spain, and arrested him just hours before he was due to carry out an assassination.
Police also dismantled a recruitment network in Alicante last year which targeted teenagers in Sweden and Denmark through encrypted apps.
That probe led to the arrest in November 2024 of a 16-year-old from Malmo, who had been living in Alicante with his father and stepmother.
The boy acted as a recruiter, luring peers with promises of money, clothes and status to carry out murders for gangs.
In July, a Swedish court sentenced him to youth care, the maximum penalty for a minor, after convicting him of serious crimes even though no killings were ultimately carried out.
Together, these cases paint a disturbing picture: international gangs are turning to children, who face lighter sentences and approach targets easier, to settle scores in Europe’s underworld.
The Costa del Sol, with its transient expat communities, established drug gangs and proximity to northern Europe, has become a focal point.
Police forces across Spain, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands are cooperating through Europol, but the Fuengirola case shows the danger is no longer hypothetical.
Click here to read more Costa Del Sol News from The Olive Press.
