The mysterious whereabouts of Gemballa founder, Uwe Gemballa, has finally been solved. Unfortunately, there won’t be any reunions or happy endings with this one.

In a tragic development, Uwe Gemballa was found dead and covered in cellophane in South Africa. Details behind Gemballa’s death are still limited but according to police, Gemballa may have been the victim of a hit orchestrated by Radovan Krejcir, a notorious Czech crime kingpin. Even before Gemballa inexplicably fell off the grid earlier this year, there have already been rumors surrounding his involvement in some illegal transactions with Krejcir dating back to 2002. The relationship between the two looks to have hit a rough patch late last year when Gemballa wasn’t making enough payments to Krejcir, prompting the latter to issue a death threat on the German auto tuner.

After Gemballa was called to South Africa, the German was kidnapped by Krejcir’s henchmen – airport surveillance caught Uwe with what appears to be an associate of the crime boss – where it tried to retrieve the money owed to Krejcir. When the payments never came in, Uwe Gemballa was murdered.

This is definitely tragic news for those who knew Uwe Gemballa. He may not have been the most accommodating person in the world, but he was a well-respected figure in the auto tuning industry.

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