ONE of Europe’s most wanted drug kingpins has been gunned down in Mexico after years of evading arrest.

Marco Ebben, who once even faked his own death to avoid cops, was shot and killed just outside Mexico City this week.

The 32-year-old convicted drug trafficker was on the top of Europol’s “most wanted fugitives” list after years of being linked to international drug trades.

Officials managed to hit him with a seven-year prison sentence in 2020 for allegedly smuggling 400 kilograms of cocaine in containers filled with pineapples alongside accomplices.

The offences took place between 2014 and 2015 in a suspected drug trafficking route from Brazil to the Netherlands.

The details around the Dutchman’s death are yet to be confirmed but he is suspected to have been targeted by rival gangsters.

An image allegedly shows the kingpin’s body laying on the ground of a parking lot in an upscale residential complex in Atizapán de Zaragoza.

After he was convicted back in October 2020, he went into hiding and fled Europe, Europol believe.

An international manhunt for Ebben had been ongoing ever since.

Since 2023, he had reportedly been living in Mexico under a fake identity.

Ebben had been suspected of having close ties with notorious drug trafficking ring the Mexican Sinaloa cartel for years, say officials.

In an attempt to escape being jailed, he reportedly faked his death last October in the cartel stronghold of Culiacan.

He was accused of trying to con cops by using the fierce turf war between two factions of the Sinaloa Cartel to stage his hoax demise.

Last month, a drug cartel kingpin was arrested in the UK after agents tracked him down through his wife’s boastful posts about their travels.

Luis Grijalba is wanted in the US on charges of exporting cocaine from Costa Rica.

The 43-year-old has already survived two assassination attempts in Costa Rica – including one in which he cowered behind a cherry tree while seven comrades were gunned down.