Inside Putin’s unlikely hitman hunting ground Benidorm where Brits vow to keep partying despite assassins in the shadows

IT’S the brash Spanish hotspot where Brits flock for bawdy stag and hen party frolics and boozy mobility scooter bar crawls.

But sunny Benidorm was being darkened by a sinister shadow yesterday - cast by evil tyrant Vladimir Putin.

The ruthless despot’s hitmen are believed to have tracked down and executed a Russian helicopter pilot who fled to the Costa resort after defecting to Ukraine.

But bulldog Brits partied on undaunted yesterday as Spanish police hunted Kremlin killers believed to be stalking more Putin enemies hiding among them.

The Sun was given access to the eerie murder scene yesterday where pilot Captain Maxim Kuzminov, 28, was found riddled with bullets in a car park.

He was dispatched in cold blood by six shots from a pistol believed to have been fitted with a silencer just a 10 minute drive from Benidorm’s party strip.

The stealth of his assassins was such that no one heard or witnessed the killing before they fled in a getaway car later found torched nearby.

We retraced Kuzminov’s last steps yesterday from the 9th floor apartment where he was lying low after fleeing to a Ukrainian airfield in a stolen Mi8 helicopter last August.

He had hoped to blend in at the Tower Three block off a tree-lined boulevard where 70 per cent of residents were from Russia, Ukraine and other eastern European states.

But police probing his murder believe he made the fatal mistake of inviting an ex-girlfriend to join him - and his phone call home enabled Putin agents to trace his location.

Investigators believe a hit team of GRU and FSB secret servicemen was activated and pounced on their target in the creepy gloom on level three of the block’s basement car park.

They appeared to know Kuzminov parked in space number 29 and were lying in wait when he descended towards his doom in an elevator at around 5pm on February 13.

Locals at the murder scenes yesterday told us the victim may have spotted the killers - and died as he ran for his life.

We walked his final steps yesterday around 50 metres to the spot where his body was found just short of the parking garage’s electrically-operated metal doors.

The concierge at the block - who gave his name only as Ruben - told The Sun: “I found his body half way up the car park’s exit ramp - it looks like he was trying to escape on foot.

“He was clearly dead, lying face up with his eyes and mouth wide open and gunshot wounds to his chest and abdomen.

“I’d never seen a dead body before and it was a shocking sight - some people are scared to go to the car park since it happened.

“No one saw anyone suspicious or heard anything and when he first saw him we thought he’d been run over.

“But I realised what had happened when I saw the blood from his wounds on his blue sports jacket and the bag he had been carrying.

“There was no phone signal down there so I had to run outside to call the police.

“Now we know who he was, the police think Putin sent his people to do this - how could this happen in a place like this?”

The killers appear to have carefully plotted their escape and ensured they were not trapped in the car park, which can only be exited by residents with a remote-control fob.

They are believed to have fled on foot to a stolen white Hyundai parked on the street outside before speeding away - and dodged CCTV covering the garage entrance.

Kuzminov was on Putin’s most-wanted list after being paid a reported £400,000 to steal his Russian military chopper in a major propaganda coup for Ukraine.

He had been given a new identity and joined a large community of Russian speakers living in and around Benidorm using a Ukrainian passport with the name Igor Shevchenko.

The defector is believed to have moved to a flat which he was renovating and hoped to start a new life in the Benidorm suburb of Villajoyosa.

Despite the continuing carnage between their nations in Eastern Europe, Russians and Ukrainians live side-by-side in Spain alongside British ex-pats and trippers.

But Spanish police now hunting the killers believe a Kremlin death squad has infiltrated the community and is standing by to liquidate more Putin enemies.

And the theory was all but confirmed this week as police sources revealed distinctive Russian bullets had been used to kill Kusminov - as a chilling Kremlin “calling card”.

Telegram channel Volya - an independent Ukraine war source which - linked the murder to another feared Putin assassination - and warned Kremlin killers may be stalking the Costas.

In spring 2022 multimillionaire Russian exile Sergey Protosenya, 55, was found hanged after allegedly killing his wife Natalia, 53, and their teenage daughter, Maria, with an axe.

Protosenya was a former deputy chairman of Novotek, a company closely linked to the Kremlin who fell foul of Putin’s regime.

Volya said the hit team pose as maritime security guards are hiding in plain sight on the Costas.

They work under the cover of providing security for Russian cargo ships - but some openly wear shoulder straps with the insignia of Putin spy services including the FSB and GRU.

Others pose as “export-import” specialists but are in fact officers from the GRU - whose agents attempted to kill Sergei Skripal with novichok nerve agent in Salisbury in 2018.

Volya said “The Russians have been living in Alicante, Altea, Benidorm and neighbouring small towns for two years now.

“Among these people there are professional killers or saboteurs.
“They killed Protosenya in the spring of 2022 in Lloret de Mar for withdrawing funds from the Russian Federation.

“They tried to cover up that death as an alleged domestic murder but they did not disguise themselves with Kuzminov.

“They promised to punish him - and they punished him.”

Brits in Benidorm remained stoic yesterday as the red menace among them was laid bare at the holiday playground.

Nick Holman, a 71-year-old retired Kent police officer who is spending a month in the block next to the murder scene, said: “I didn’t see or hear anything on the day and can’t say it's affected me.

“The car park where it happened is pretty dark but I don’t have any concerns about going there - I’m just carrying on.”

Jeff Spring, a 68-year-old retired trucker from Glasgow said: “It’ll take more than Putin to stop me coming to Benidorm.

“There are loads of Russian here and I’ve never had any problem with them - and don’t expect that to change.”

Alan Jacobs, a 56-year-old plumber on holiday with his wife Jane continued their bar crawl close to the murder scene yesterday aboard a two-seater mobility scooter.

Alan said: “I just wish someone would give Putin what he deserves and couldn’t care less if his hitmen are here.

“I’m only here for the beer - and they’ll never catch me on my scooter!”