Organised crime group member found guilty of brutal Hartlepool murder

Albanian Eugert Merizaj, 31, was found guilty of the murder of Hemawand Ali Hussein, described as a “major drug dealer” at an empty house in Charterhouse Street in September 2019.

Mr Hussein died instantly after being shot at point-blank range with a shotgun.

Although Merizaj was not accused of being the gunman, the prosecution said he was “instrumental” in helping to plan and carry out the attack and was therefore just as guilty.

The exact motive for the killing has never been discovered.

But Mr Hussein, who was originally from Kurdistan in Iraq, is believed to have made enemies with an Albanian drugs gang.

Prosecutor Francis Fitzgibbon said at the start of the trial at Teesside Crown Court: "It was a carefully planned hit on a man with whom the killers were in dispute who had to be got rid of.”

Merizaj, who at the time of the murder lived in Middlesbrough, attended a so-called planning meeting with other gang members in Bolton a week before the murder.

He was then caught on camera buying potential weapons from a B&Q in Middlesbrough with another man including an axe, and obtained the keys to the house.

The prosecution added Merizaj, who was extradited to England from Belgium after fleeing the country, was in “frequent and regular” contact with others involved including the suspected gunman who is still on the run.

The jury returned their verdict on Friday afternoon.

Merizaj, of Montague Street, Leicester, will be sentenced on April 26.

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