A 20-year-old man who was killed by Swedish narcos in a case mistaken identity ‘dreamed of becoming a train mechanic’.
Named locally as Nacho, the youth was laid to rest on Monday afternoon after being shot twice in a busy Malaga square on Friday morning.
Hundreds of friends and family gathered at Parcemasa, the city’s main cemetery park, to bid a final farewell to the victim.
He was gunned down in broad daylight in the Barcenillas neighbourhood last Friday after three individuals linked to criminal gangs confused him for a rival.
Loved ones have fiercely defended the memory of the only child, insisting he had absolutely no connection to the criminal underworld, Diario Sur reported.
His friends described him as a ‘noble, happy and hardworking lad’ who did not deserve such an end.
“He didn’t have it in him to hurt anyone,” they said.
“From the beginning we knew it had to be a mistake,” one friend told the Spanish daily.
“He has never had problems with anyone or got into weird things, he would never have done it.”
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The youngster grew up in the Alegria de la Huerta area before moving with his mother to the La Victoria neighbourhood, just north of the city centre.
Known for his sociable and peaceful nature, he shared a passion for motorbikes and mechanics with a wide circle of friends from his teenage years in Ciudad Jardin.
He was known as a grafter who had worked in carpentry, electricity and road maintenance near the Rosaleda football stadium.
But his ultimate ambition was to work as a train mechanic for Spain’s national rail operator, Renfe.
This made the early speculation linking him to gang violence particularly painful for his grieving family.
“The last thing he would do is get into a world of that type,” his inner circle insisted.
Initially, investigators believed the shooting was a ‘targeted killing’ related to a dispute between rival gangs, with specialist officers from UDYCO and GRECO Costa del Sol – the police units responsible for drugs and organised criminal groups respectively – called in to assist the investigation.
But police now believe the youngster, who died from his wounds in hospital, was an innocent victim.
“The investigation remains open and has been classified as confidential, although the initial line of inquiry suggests that the victim is not linked to any criminal organisation or drug trafficking,” a police spokesperson said on Tuesday.
The victim was sitting on a bench near his home on Calle Barcenillas shortly before midday on Friday when three men approached and opened fire without warning.
He suffered bullet wounds to his back and leg, with harrowing video footage of the incident showing the bloodied youngster crawling into a nearby Dia supermarket in Plaza Virgen del Rocio to seek help.
Witnesses quickly called the 112 emergency service, who dispatched an ambulance team to the scene.
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Paramedics rushed the victim to a nearby hospital where he underwent emergency surgery, although he later succumbed to his injuries.
All three suspects, believed to be organised criminals based in Sweden but ‘hiding out’ on the Costa del Sol, were detained.
The first was arrested shortly after the shooting by Policia Nacional patrol officers who quickly attended the scene, located near to the popular tourist zone of Plaza de la Merced.
The other two men fled the scene, prompting an urgent search across Malaga province.
Officers located a property used by the first detainee, carrying out a raid and arresting the second suspect there.
The third man had fled and altered his appearance in an attempt to avoid detection, but was tracked down and arrested at around 11pm on Friday evening on a street in Fuengirola.
The latest revelation raises the question of whether the young victim may have been an innocent bystander, a victim of mistaken identity, or purposely targeted for another unknown reason.
One hypothesis being pursued is that the three assailants suspected the victim was watching them from the bench and may have been a hitman.
The incident is the latest in a spate of shootings that have rocked the province in recent weeks.
Last week, a male victim in his 40s was gunned down in Zalea, a small village in the municipality, in a suspected settling of scores between rival drug gangs.
A woman was arrested by the Guardia Civil on suspicion of his murder.
The week prior, a Dutch national and a Policia Local officer were injured in another narco-related incident after gunmen opened fire in broad daylight near a hotel on Marbella’s luxurious Golden Mile.
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