A joint operation between the National Police and the Guardia Civil of Alicante has led to the arrest of a man suspected of attempted homicide and the illicit possession of weapons. The arrest relates to a shooting that occurred in March 2025 in Villajoyosa, which left the driver of a vehicle seriously injured. The 65-year-old suspect, who had been hiding from justice, was detained on 19th June in the town of Ceutí in Murcia.
The investigation began on 12th March 2025 when three men travelled to a property in Villajoyosa, allegedly to demand a debt. During the incident, multiple gunshots were fired from the property at the car they were in. The bullets penetrated the bodywork and struck the driver, who suffered gunshot wounds to his foot and abdomen.
Initial work by the Territorial Team of the Judicial Police of the Guardia Civil of Villajoyosa indicated that at least two firearms were used, believed to be a handgun and a shotgun or similar weapon. Following investigations during the search, officers identified the suspected material authors, who had fled, prompting the judicial authority to issue a European Arrest Warrant.
After a year-long search, the National Police, through the Drug and Organised Crime Unit (UDYCO) of Murcia, provided a potential location for a property in the Region of Murcia where one of the wanted individuals might be hiding. From that moment, both police forces coordinated their actions and established joint surveillance operations to confirm the presence of the suspect.
Once the information was verified, investigators entered the property and made the arrest. During the search, officers seized a semi-automatic pistol loaded with a magazine and eight cartridges. This weapon could be linked to the shooting, pending the results of a ballistic study. On 19th June, the suspect was placed at the disposal of the judicial authority, which ordered his provisional entry into prison.
This shooting adds to a series of high-profile violent episodes that have shaken Villajoyosa in recent years, temporarily distancing the municipality from its traditional image of coastal tranquillity. The town has been the scene of complex international plots, most notably the fatal shooting in February 2024 of Maxim Kuzminov, a Russian pilot who had deserted to Ukraine and was executed by Kremlin agents in the garage of a local residential estate where he was hiding under a false identity.
Concerns in the area were later revived when the body of Ihor Hrushevskyi, a high-ranking Ukrainian official against organised crime, was found under strange circumstances in the swimming pool of the very same residential complex. This rise in serious crime, ranging from espionage and international score-settling to violent street debts like the present case, has placed this area of the Alicante province firmly under the spotlight of the security forces.
The increase in incidents involving firearms has altered the perception of safety among residents in the affected estates, who have watched as joint operations by the Guardia Civil and the National Police have become crucial to dismantling these networks and halting the establishment of organised crime in the region.
