THE detective investigating the murder of an Albanian man in Golders Green says he believes money was involved in the shocking crime.

Twenty-seven-year-old Cima Sogojeva was found dead in his flat in Highfield Road last October with gunshot wounds to his head and body.

Detective Sergeant Eamonn Halliday told the Times Series his team was making inroads into solving the crime, but needed more information to tip them “over the edge”.

Police are now offering up to £20,000 to anyone with information that could help them catch the killer or killers.

“We'll never let a homicide go unsolved,” said Det Sgt Halliday. “We've got some good ideas, we're just looking for that little bit extra information to push us over the edge.”

Two Albanian men have been arrested on suspicion of money-laundering since Mr Sogojeva's death and police believe the offences may be linked in some way to his shooting.

“We haven't formulated a motive but in my mind money is at the heart of it,” said Det Sgt Halliday.

“There are substantial sums of money involved. I wouldn't be at all surprised if that was something to do with why Cima met his death.

“It's possible, probable, but not certain that it was the motive. It is lots of money.”

Officers from the Metropolitan Police Homicide and Serious Crime Command returned to the scene of the crime this week in an effort to forge new leads.

“We're making inroads, we've got people we want to speak to,” said Det Sgt Halliday.

“We're targeting people in the Kosovan and Albanian communities because that's the community our victim came from.

“It's a relatively insular group of people and maybe a tougher group to get through to, but they are talking to us. They're just not telling us what we need to know.

“They might not know the answers, it might be that there's an element of fear. Coming from where they do there might not be the level of trust and confidence in law enforcement there is here.”

Police have discovered since Mr Sogojeva's death that his “occupation” was theft, and believe the involvement of his friends in similar activities may be discouraging them from being entirely open with them.

Det Sgt Halliday said: “The key point is that someone was shot in his own home. Someone shot him multiple times, in his head and his torso, and he's dead. That person is still at large and the weapon is unrecovered.

“There's an element of vulnerability there – whoever did this could do it again.”

Anyone with information is urged to call the incident room, based at Hendon on 020 8358 0400, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.