Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1178032
15 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 20 OCTOBER 2019 ANALYSIS by a disclaimer of sorts that a persistent rumour (delivered to her by "people from the warranted professions", such was its apparent seriousness) needed letting out: was Ma- nuel Mallia, one-time lawyer to the Paceville underworld, an investor in the Schembri- Agius ruse? Again there was no attempt at presenting a shred of evidence except for the suggestive headline. "I can't help thinking that all these stories are going to dovetail sooner or later" – she wrote, listing one by one the Maltese criminal almanac: sex and drugs in Paceville, police corruption, the More Supermarkets bust and the front it could have served for, the gangland vendettas and car bombs picking out those with connections to diesel smuggling, and again the dis- appearance of 23-year-old, luxury car and yacht-owner Terence Gialanze. "Do we even realise that many of these cannot possibly be disparate and random oc- currences?" she mused. "An underworld of this na- ture," she wrote later in 2016 when a car bomb dispatched fisherman and suspected smuggler Marco Cachia, "which has now moved in- to contract killings and the elimination of rivals, will defi- nitely have a network in the country's power structures, because the two go together." Familiar faces There are some important connections that bring these small-island characters to- gether. For example, there is the murder of John Camilleri, 67, the businessman known as 'Tas-Sapuna', killed by a car bomb in October 2016. "Everybody pretends there's no pattern. The diesel smug- glers are described as 'fisher- men' or 'restaurateurs', and the drug smugglers are called long-distance lorry drivers or hauliers, or 'unemployed family men' or 'business- men', though some of them are occasionally described as 'known to the police'," Caru- ana Galizia noted in her post of that day. What was then unknown, but came to light only after the arrest of George Degior- gio, was a court feud between Degiorgio and Camilleri: the two men had been friends at one point, before Camilleri sued Degiorgio for thousands of euros owed on a property deal under threat of eviction since 2011. Camilleri was de- manding that Degiorgio pay him back over €52,000 for a St Paul's Bay apartment he 'sold' him back in 1996 – not by legitimate property trans- fer, but through a verbal agreement. Degiorgio was be- ing represented by National- ist MP and lawyer Mario de Marco; court witnesses in- cluded Degiorgio's brother Alfred and Daren Debono 'it-Topo' – the latter charged with the failed HSBC heist of 2010, and also acquitted of a 2004 armed robbery together with Alfred Degiorgio and Vincent Muscat. These are important con- nections only insofar as they help us trace the web of fa- miliarity between business- men, oil smugglers, drug traf- fickers… and perhaps those in power? It would be an eerie rejoinder to Caruana Gali- zia's guarded observation on whether all these murders had to dovetail at some point. Malta's gangland killings are indeed inhabited by a dramatis personae of known faces: Jonathan Pace died in August 2014, mere months after being charged in April with the attempted murder of Vince Muscat; in February 2014 the bomb-maker Pietru Cassar 'il-Haqqa' was shot on his Zejtun doorstep, and be- fore loan shark Joseph Galea 'il-Gilda' was killed outside his Marsa home. Before that there was the hit on Paul De- gabriele 'il-Suldat' in Marsa – he himself was investigat- ed for the 2012 murders of Joseph Cutajar 'il-Lion' and Josef Grech 'il-Yoyo', who in turn were gunned down after Cutajar had been cornered in an underground garage by two hitmen, among them Kevin Gatt, whom he shot dead; Cutajar was also among the suspects of the daring Ca- sino di Venezia heist of 2010. Not forgotten is the myste- rious gunning-down in 2008 of Raymond Agius at 49, the father of Adrian Agius, mur- dered at the Butterfly Bar, Birkirkara when two men wearing crash helmets arrived on a motorcycle, one of them firing a pistol in the head. And a quick fast-forward to February 2017, with yet another car bomb on Romeo Bone, who lost his legs in the murder attempt. Bone had been investigated in the mur- der of Gozo businessman Joe Baldacchino, though never charged; he had also been acquitted of an armed rob- bery charge, and acquitted of having stalked the discredited former police officer Mario Portelli, a witness who was supposed to have uncovered a mafia-style cabal run by former police inspector Da- vid Gatt – the latter acquit- ted of being the mastermind 2010 HSBC heist. Even here, though never charged, the Degiorgio brothers were im- plicated in the 2010 HSBC heist because their names cropped up during the com- pilation of evidence against Gatt, today a lawyer, who was acquitted of the charge of be- ing the heist's mastermind. Agius was a principal of the More companies Fisherman Pierre Darmanin (left) speaks to Daphne on the phone about inaccuracies in report linking him to Cachia Camilleri knew George and Alfred Degiorgio over several years Although acquitted, Bone was connected to the HSBC suspects, which included one-time associates of the Degiorgios Arrested in Dec 2017, one of seven people who were never charged Charged with murder of Caruana Galizia Victim of car bomb attack Mentioned just once Jun 2014 • Murder of Marsaxlokk restaurateur Darren Degabriele by car bomb: unsolved Aug 2014 • Jonathan Pace is murdered at home, shot dead Oct 2014 • More Supermarkets: owner Ryan Schembri leaves island, Adrian Agius described by DCG as being part of 'crime gang' connected to high-interest loans scheme fronted by More Jan 2016 • Fisherman Marco Cachia murdered by car bomb, has criminal priors Sep 2016 • Hauler Josef Cassar survives car bomb: loses legs in Aldo Moro car explosion Oct 2016 • Businessman John Camilleri murdered by car bomb: he was in a court feud with George Degiorgio over €52,000 he was owed for a property he had given him back in 1996. Jan 2017 • Victor Calleja murdered by car bomb: previously implicated in 1998 Group 4 heist Feb 2017 • Romeo Bone targeted in car bomb: was investigated on Baldacchino murder, and acquitted of stalking Mario Gatt, discredited witness who claimed 2010 HSBC heist was masterminded by former police inspector, now lawyer David Gatt Mentioned by media reports in connection to DCG murder Five posts, illustrating use of car bombs killing alleged smugglers The Bugibba car bomb that killed John Camilleri in 2016: he had been in a court feud with George Degiorgio over past monies owed at the time of the murder. The case remians unsolved