Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1411841
SUNDAY • 19 SEPTEMBER 2021 • ISSUE 1142 • PUBLISHED SUNDAY AND WEDNESDAY maltatoday POLITICS TRUTH IS OF NO COLOUR WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT A longish political season starts tomorrow as Independence Day kicks in PGS 6-7 METSOLA The MEP could be favourite for the EP's top job PAGES 12-13 KARL AZZOPARDI FEWER Lampuki catches this year are pushing the price up of this staple in Malta's summer menu, fishers have warned. Lampuki is currently being sold at around €11.50 a kilo, with prices at this time of the season normally at around €4 a kilo. Lampuki fisher Arthur Mi- callef said that in previous years, the fish market used to receive between 1,000 and 1,200 crates of lampuki daily, but this year catches have reduced drastical- ly. The fish market so far has received between 110 and 120 crates of Dolphin Fish daily. "On Friday, not a single crate of lampuki was caught," Mi- callef told MaltaToday. But the dearth of lampuki this year may be part of a nat- ural fluctuation in population numbers, according to marine biologist Alan Deidun. Lampuki catches in decline push price up MAT THEW VELLA POLICE investigators tot- ted up millions in assets that Melvin Theuma, the middle- man in the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, held despite only ever declaring €250,000 in income over a pe- riod of 12 years. Theuma was officially regis- tered as a "cleaner" with Mal- ta's national employment agen- cy between 2005 and 2011, and then as a "taxi driver" between 2011 and 2017. He was lat- er given a job as a driver for a government entity in 2017, the same year that Caruana Galizia was murdered by a car bomb. Despite having declared on- ly an average of €20,000 every year, Theuma – who organised an illegal lottery pegged to the national lottery, and has also been a money laundering sus- pect for years – was revealed by police of having acquired over €1.25 million in proper- ties from 2005 onwards, apart from holding promise-of- sale agreements on two other apartments. Additionally, Theuma is al- so registered as a licenced car dealer under the opera- tor Brincat Auto Imports, the dealership nominally owned by Edgar Brincat 'il-Ġojja'. Theuma was revealed to be the owner of two taxis and six other vehicles, among them a Mercedes GLC and a Jaguar F-Pace, which the police val- ued at €600,000. Middleman: Police tot up millions held in assets Melvin Theuma declared €250,000 in income over 12 years, but held millions in property, cash and vehicles No farmed fish, we're Maltese... The Maltese say they prefer the taste of the wild PAGE 14 €1.95 PAGE 2 PAGE 15