Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1312765
2 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 25 NOVEMBER 2020 NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 A number of raids were car- ried out between Monday and Tuesday, targeting Debono and a number of his associates touted to be involved in an in- ternational fuel smuggling op- eration. Baldacchino's firm, which had provided corporate services to one of the companies impli- cated in Operation Dirty Oil fuel smuggling ring, was fined €58,900 by the Financial Intel- ligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) in October. Their clients included ADJ Trading, a company implicated in the €30 million Libyan fuel smuggling ring, that was con- trolled by former national team footballer Darren Debono, the Libyan smuggler kingpin Fah- mi Slim Ben Khalifa and Egyp- tian national Ahmed Ibra-him Hassan Arafa. Debono and Chetcuti were al- so arraigned on Monday. They were charged with mon- ey laundering and smuggling offences, before being denied bail and spending the night in prison. Darren Debono had been ar- rested in 2017 with associate Gordon Debono (no relation) and Libya milita leader Fahmi Ben Khalifa. They were sus- pected of being involved in a multi-million-euro fuel smug- gling ring with links to the Ital- ian mafia and Libyan armed groups. The report also states that the raids carried out over the last few days have been linked to a number of intelligence reports on how the fuel smugglers were laundering income from their illicit activity. In October, a judge had or- dered the Bank of Valletta to release €296,000 in funds be- longing to Darren Debono, which had been frozen under American sanctions, after rul- ing that there was nothing at law binding Maltese banks to obey sanctions from the Office of Foreign Assets Control. The US Department of the Treasury's OFAC had sanc- tioned Debono from a total of six individuals and 24 entities in 2018 over their alleged role in a €30 million fuel smuggling ring that stretched from Lib- ya to Italy. Debono is facing charges on his role in the ring in Sicily. Darren Debono had been arrested in 2017 with Gordon Debono (no relation) and Libya milita leader Fahmi Ben Khalifa Lawyer and accountant interrogated over money laundering claims Six jailed for using falsified passports FIVE Sudanese men and a 17-year-old Eritrean girl have been jailed after pleading guilty to charges relating to the pos- session and use of tampered passports. One of the five, Ahmed Hasan, 27, was also found guilty of hav- ing escaped from police custo- dy. He had admitted to the same charges in September but had escaped as he was being re- turned from court. The other men, Idris Yahyah, 29, Abdulkader Muhammad Mustafa 18, Hachim Moham- med, 21 and Ibrahim Daham Isaac 18, all of whom are un- employed and living at the Hal Far open centre, also pleaded guilty to tampering with pass- ports, possession and knowing- ly making use of falsified doc- uments. The 17-year-old girl from Eri- trea, who was living in a shelter also pleaded guilty to the charg- es. No information as to how the accused were arrested emerged from the sitting. Inspector Karl Roberts, prose- cuting, asked for a sentence of effective imprisonment for all accused, including the minor, who he said was regularly es- caping from the shelter where she was being cared for. Legal aid lawyer Josette Sul- tana told magistrate Astrid May Grima that the accused had been "caught up in the false hope" of leaving Malta, adding that the person who sold them the passports was already in prison. Arguing that the accused were not hardened criminals, the lawyer asked for a minimal pun- ishment. The minor had to be given particular attention, she said. On their own admission, the court found the accused all guilty as charged. Ahmed Hasan was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment, with the rest of the men being sentenced to one-year imprisonment. The girl was jailed for 6 months.