Did international drug feud trigger doorstep execution?
Gunned-down record boss had been one of Sweden’s most wanted
A record label boss shot dead in London on christmas eve has been linked to a drug smuggling ring in Sweden and may have been executed by rival criminals.
Father- of-two Flamur Beqiri, 36, had been connected to several gangland murders in Sweden and had once been one of the country’s most wanted men.
He was gunned down in front of his screaming wife debora Krasniqi outside their £1.7million home in Battersea, south London, on Tuesday night.
detectives are investigating whether Mr Beqiri, who was first brought up in an Albanian community in Kosovo before moving to Malmo in Sweden as a child, was killed over his links to organised crime.
A Swedish police source said last night that it had long been suspected that Mr Beqiri remained a key figure in a gang that imported vast quantities of cocaine and cannabis from Spain into Sweden. ‘He is connected to a high-level drug smuggling group that has been active for several years,’ the source said. ‘They arrange for the transport of cannabis and cocaine from Malaga to Sweden. We are talking vast amounts, tonnes.
‘The theory is that he was killed in an ongoing conflict between two drug smuggling gangs. There is a newer group in the same business that is quickly growing.’
Mr Beqiri and his family fled Sweden for the UK four or five years ago after receiving death threats at his home in Malmo, Swedish newspaper Kvällsposten reported yesterday. Several of his former associates have also been murdered since his move to Britain four or five years ago.
His friend Naief Adawi, 33, who was jailed in 2008 for his role in a multi-million pound heist in denmark, was targeted by a Syrian gunman outside a falafel shop in
Malmo in August. He handed his two-month-old baby to his wife, Karolin Hakim, 31, and fled.
Mrs Hakim, who had been a guest at Mr Beqiri’s wedding last year, was shot in the head and killed but Adawi and the baby survived. In 2008 Mr Beqiri was named as one of Sweden’s most wanted men after he was accused of being part of a drug smuggling ring that imported cannabis worth £2million into Scandinavia.
court documents show he handed himself in two years later but was acquitted of the drugs offence and convicted of the lesser offence of handling alcohol and tobacco that had been smuggled into Sweden. He was given a suspended sentence and a fine.
Mr Beqiri, who was also known as Alex, was the brother of real Housewives of cheshire star Missé
Beqiri. It was at his sister’s wedding to her ex-husband, Manchester United goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard, that Mr Beqiri fell in love with his future wife Mrs Krasniqi.
He was said to have proposed after flying their families to a chalet in Kitzbuhel, Austria, where he covered the floor in a 1,000 red rose petals. The wedding featured a lavish ceremony at a hotel on Lake como, Italy, in october 2018.
Neighbours said last night that they had been carrying out extensive refurbishments on their family home in south London.
detective Inspector Jamie Stevenson, of Scotland Yard, said: ‘We are considering that this is a targeted attack. We are in liaison with our Swedish counterparts.’
Neighbours said they heard ‘between eight to ten’ loud bangs at about 9pm. His attacker fled on foot, police confirmed.
Vittoria Amati, 60, said: ‘I came out and realised it was one of my neighbours. He was lying in front of his doorway in a pool of blood. He was still alive. You have no idea how desperate [his wife] sounded.’
No arrests have been made.
‘We are talking vast amounts of cocaine’