Career criminal Gwenette Martha (40) killed near Van Spaenstraat in Amstelveen

Gwenette Girigorie Martha (40) was born on Curaçao and came to the Netherlands at the age of eight with his mother and younger brother. His brother Jovanny was shot dead on Rembrandtplein in 1992. Martha became one of the best-known names in the Amsterdam underworld and was held responsible for a large number of contract killings; he was himself convicted of money laundering in 2007. On the evening of Thursday 22 May 2014 he was in the Rooz establishment on Amstelveenseweg with others. One of them lured him outside. A hit team was waiting. Three men opened fire. Martha was struck by so many bullets that the post-mortem later counted around eighty wounds, entry and exit. He died at the scene, on the corner of Van Spaenstraat in Amstelveen. The gunmen fled at speed in a dark BMW towards Amsterdam. Shortly after half past ten that evening a burning BMW was found on Venserweg in Diemen; it proved to be the getaway car. Martha's killing did not stand alone: he was a central figure in the run of score-settlings that dominated the Amsterdam underworld in these years, and several other 2014 murders were later linked to that chain.