Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/767061
maltatoday, SATURDAY, 24 DECEMBER 2016 8 2016: Looking back Spectre of vendetta never too far away Murders and bomb attacks Six people were murdered over the past year, two of them in car bombings, raising fears that the local authorities were failing in their struggle against organised crime. In January, Martin Cachia, 56, was killed when a bomb destroyed the car he was driving. Cachia had a pending court case in connection with human trafficking and was involved in a number of court cases in connection with drugs, contraband ciga- rettes and human smuggling. Cachia, who was also a registered fisherman, was inves- tigated in connection with the smuggling of fuel from Libya. As far as is publicly known, it was never concluded whether Cachia had been knowingly carrying the bomb or whether the device had been planted in his car. In March, no one was injured when an explosive device detonated at a boathouse in Armier, belonging to a 38-year-old man from Attard. In September, a 37-year-old stevedore lost both his legs when a bomb that was planted underneath his van exploded on a busy Marsa road during the evening rush hour. The third car bomb of 2016 claimed the life of businessman Joseph Camilleri, deto- nating under his car seat as he left his part- ner's Bugibba flat in November. Libyan nationals Zyad Mohamed Drebe- ka and Ahmed Rasem Franko pleaded not guilty in May to the murder of a Colombi- an man in Paceville in May. The men, aged 23 and 29 years respectively, were charged with the homicide of the 37-year-old Co- lombian man, who succumbed to injuries he sustained in a fight in Paceville. The nation reacted with outrage at the murder of Eleanor Mangion Walker, a 33 year-old mother of one, whose body was found in a warehouse in Qormi last July, having been bludgeoned to death. In 2016 Malta witnessed murders, bombings, horrific family sex crimes, football corruption and one or two bizarre cases that defy pigeonholing MATTHEW AGIUS The third car bomb of 2016 claimed the life of businessman Joseph Camilleri MATTHEW