A Serbian man executed in front of his family last week in Brazil has now been identified as a hitman wanted by Interpol for multiple contract killings.
"Investigations showed that he lived here clandestinely and under a false Slovenian name," the lead officer on the investigation, Luiz Ricardo Lara Dias Jr., told reporters on Friday.
Dias Jr. said that Interpol wanted Darko for nearly a decade and that police believe his murder may be related to his criminal past.
Local police this week identified the victim as Darko Geisler, 43, after consulting with the Slovenian consulate in São Paulo based on the passport found on the victim — only to learn that the passport did not belong to him, but to a Slovenian citizen who lost it in 2017.
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Reverse-searching for Geisler’s photos online helped police identify him as a Serbian hitman wanted in Montenegro for multiple homicides and possession of weapons and explosives, Jam Press reported. Montenegrin authorities confirmed that Geisler was a contract killer.
Police now believe that Geisler had lived in Brazil for nine years, hiding his identity after he fled Montenegro for Bosnia following the execution of a man at a prison gate on Christmas Day in 2014. He disappeared after that, resurfacing now that he has met his end.
After settling in Brazil, Geisler met his future spouse in 2015 or 2016 and moved to Santos. His wife claimed she had no idea about his true identity.
People close to the couple told local outlet Folha de S.Paulo says the truth about Geisler’s past doesn’t line up with the man they knew: Geisler used to take his son to school and mingle with the other parents from the neighborhood, despite speaking little Portuguese.
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Another neighbor said that Geisler often played games with his son in the street and that he often visited the local bakery with his family. He would visit daily to pick up cigarettes, and he told everyone he worked as a carpenter.
He claimed that his family received money from a business he owned back in his "home country" of Slovenia.
Geisler met his end while with his family. CCTV footage showed Geisler with his wife and son, aged three-and-a-half, as they returned home and were stowing their bikes when a gunman ran across the road and shot Geisler at point-blank range.
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The killer wore a mask and gloves and fled the scene in a black car, leaving no traces. His identity is still unknown. A neighbor who heard the gunshots and Geisler’s wife screaming called the Military Police and emergency services, and he was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
Brazilian police continue to search for Geisler’s killer. Authorities believe his criminal past may have played a role in his death, and police in Brazil and Montenegro will work together to get to the bottom of the mystery.
