In Amsterdam a severed head was found laying in the open street. It is just the latest gruesome murder in what is being called the “MOCRO War” involving North African migrants from Morocco.
Amsterdam resident Stan Koeman made the discovery. He first thought it may just be a bag laying on the ground but he soon realized what lay in front of his deli was much worse: “But then, I saw: sh*t it looks like a head,” he told Dutch media according to Welt.de.
The remains of the body belonging to the victim were found a day earlier, partially burned, in a different section of the city. The victim was a 23 year-old man, Nabil Amzieb.
Police say the positioning of his head was done on purpose. His eyes were pointed toward a local shisha smoking lounge called “Fayrouz” which, according to local police, is a known meeting place for North African gangs who have been in a bitter and bloody turf war since 2012.
Police are tight lipped about the case and didn’t want to confirm many details as the investigation is still ongoing but it is known in the area that more such incidents have occurred and that at least one person was shot near the shisha bar in 2014.
Since 2012 there have been dozens of attacks by members of the so-called “MORCO mafia” against each other. Nearly 20 people have been killed since the beginning of the conflict but Nabil Amzieb is the youngest killed so far.
Over the past year police released statistics showing the scale of the gang war. They showed 396 fire arms seizures and six murders, which was down from the average of ten per year since 2012.
Amsterdam’s Mayor Eberhard van der Laan compared the violence to the notorious Mexican drug cartels saying: “We usually see these things on television series like “Narcos” or in places like Columbia, not in Amsterdam, but it was in Amsterdam.”
He called the whole event a “big shock for the public”. Back in 2014 he was concerned that the city’s streets were becoming more violent, now he says he sees this event as merely a new chapter in the escalating violence.
While police are being quiet about the investigation they were clear that they did not believe the “MOCRO war” was anywhere near over.
In Germany this week migrant gang violence led to a car exploding in Berlin. The man who was targeted was involved in drug trafficking and was thought to have been the target of assassination by a rival migrant gang.
Austrian capital Vienna also saw migrant gang violence that started out as a dispute on social media and led to around 50 Afghani migrants stabbing and beating young Chechens. Both gangs are said to have also been involved in the drug trade.