Kickboxer ‘hitman’ flew to UK to execute music executive linked to crime boss in Dubai raid, court told

Flamur Beqiri was shot in London and was associated with a notorious Swedish drugs gang targeted in Dubai

Flamur Beqiri, who was shot dead at his London home in front of his wife and child on Christmas Eve. Shutterstock

A music executive linked to a criminal caught in a Dubai raid was "executed" at his £1.5 million home in London by a hitman, a court has heard.

Flamur Beqiri, 36, who was once a wanted crime lord in Sweden, died from multiple gunshot wounds after being attacked at his home in London’s Battersea district on Christmas Eve last year.

Swedish citizen Anis Fouad Hemissi, 22, appeared at the Old Bailey in London on Wednesday charged with murder and possessing a firearm.

He was extradited from Denmark to the UK on Monday after being arrested at Copenhagen Airport on January 20 under a European arrest warrant.

Prosecutor Catherine Farrelly told the court Mr Hemissi was a hitman and had left the country within hours of the murder.

"The defendant will face two charges in relation to the events of December 24 last year," she said.

"The prosecution case is that he flew into the UK four days before and the sole purpose of his trip was to essentially execute the deceased. It was an organised hit and within hours of it taking place at 9pm he then flew out of the country. He flew to Copenhagen and an arrest warrant was issued."

Mr Hemissi, from Malmo, Sweden, appeared in court via video link from Wormwood Scrubs prison in London.

He confirmed his name at the hearing and asked the court to provide a Swedish interpreter in the future.

His barrister, David Harounoff, told the court his client will deny the charges and will be applying for the case to be dismissed.

"This is going to be a contested matter," he added.

Judge Angela Rafferty QC has set a plea hearing date of August 27 and has remanded Mr Hemissi, a kickboxer, in custody.

The murder victim Beqiri, an Albanian who grew up in Malmo, had links to Spain's Costa del Sol drugs gangs and is understood to have fled to the UK five years ago after receiving death threats.

He was associated with a Swedish drugs gang, called Los Suecos, ‘the Swedes’, who operate on the Costa del Sol and were allegedly led by Amir Faten Mekky, who was arrested in a raid in Dubai last week.

Mr Mekky was on Europe’s most wanted list as being an alleged gangland leader and the “financier” of alleged Dutch drugs lord, Radwan Al Taghi, who was arrested in Dubai last December and is in custody awaiting trial for multiple murders.

Beqiri was with his wife and young son at the time of his killing.

At the time of Beqiri’s death, British detectives revealed they were working with Swedish authorities over the possibility he had been involved in a drugs war with North African criminals.

Beqiri had been running a record company in London called 2020rec.

He was once one of Sweden’s most wanted men over a €2m international drugs trafficking case and knew several victims of recent gangland murders.

He had been associated with Mr Mekky, who had been on the run since evading capture in Spain in 2018.

Mr Mekky was apprehended in Dubai last week in a joint international operation and is wanted for murders in the Spanish towns of San Pedro Alcántara and Estepona in 2018.

Spanish authorities are seeking his extradition.

The Los Suecos gang is suspected of ordering kidnappings, shootings and arsons in the Costa del Sol.

Last December, Mr Mekky's associate Al Taghi was arrested following an international manhunt when Dubai Police joined forces with Dutch officials and discovered him hiding out in a luxury villa in the resort region.

Within three days of his arrest, authorities in Dubai deported him to the Netherlands to face multiple murder charges.

A long-running turf war involving Dutch-Moroccans has seen the loss of many innocent lives across Europe.

Al Taghi, who is a dual Dutch and Moroccan citizen, has been cited in court papers as being behind some of the deaths.

It is alleged he used a biker gang, known as the Angels of Death, to carry out executions for both drug feuds and revenge attacks.

Those allegedly killed on his orders were targeted using grenades, guns and explosives.