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maltatoday WEDNESDAY 6 DECEMBER 2017 News 4 2015 In 2015, Alfred Degiorgio was among three criminals found not guilty of being involved in an armed hold-up on the employees of Val- hmor Borg Ltd in Marsa, back in March 2004, in which €42,000 were stolen. They were cleared of accusa- tions when the presiding magistrate decreed there was lack of evidence to convict them. The other two accused were Vin- cent Muscat 'Il-Kohhu', and Darren Debono 'It-topo'. The three stood charged with committing an armed robbery, holding persons against their will, being in possession of weapons and ammunition, and con- spiring to engage in an aggravated theft. Debono and Muscat had also been charged with relapsing. Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Her- rera presided over the case while lawyer Arthur Azzopardi defended the accused. 2010 Together, the Degiorgio brothers were implicated in the 2010 HSBC heist, alongside Darren Debono 'It-Topo'. Their names cropped up during the compilation of evidence against David Gatt, a former police inspector, now lawyer, who was charged and later acquitted of mas- terminding the foiled HSBC heist. During Gatt's court hearing, PC Jonathan Agius of the mobile squad said he had been called in to quell a quarrel in St Paul's Bay where a firearm was used. An argument had broken out between a bus driver and the driver of a BMW after the road was blocked for the bus. The car driver had reportedly been armed. The driver of the BMW was George Degiorgio, who denied having had a weapon. Agius also said that during a pa- trol in Marsa at the area known as tal-Patata – the scene where arrests were made this week - he came face- to-face with George Degiorgio, who did not appear pleased with the meeting. The constable said he felt compelled to search his car. As he was about to do so Degior- gio's brother drew up in a Mercedes. PC Agius said he became more suspicious. Both Degiorgios argued strongly against any searches be- ing made. PC Agius said he con- tacted his sergeant who went on site but both men continued to ar- gue strongly against the searches. George Degiorgio insisted that any search should take place only by the CID and he therefore followed them to the CID section. The car was lat- er searched and nothing was found. 2003 In 2003, George Degiorgio 'ic-Ci- niz', with Francis Formosa 'il-Putatti', was found not guilty of being in pos- session of a crowbar, hammer, rope, torches, knife and gloves in his car. 2001 Back in 2001 John Rizzo, then As- sistant Commissioner in charge of the Criminal Investigations Depart- ment (CID), said he had found infor- mation linking police inspector Da- vid Gatt with criminals suspected in the Group 4 Securitas heist. This was never proven, and the Degiorgios were never charged with the heist. Jason and Victor Calleja 'ic-Chippy' were suspected of stealing more than €120,000 from a Group 4 Securitas Van in 1998, but while G4S employee Mi- chael Angelo Pace admitted to the criminal charges against him and got a suspended sentence, both Victor and Jason Calleja denied complicity and never faced crimi- nal charges. Rizzo had, however, said the G4S heist suspects were meeting near the Siggiewi cemetery. "We went to check on them. These people left the site and we – the po- lice – followed them and I gave the order to stop them on 13 December street, near the Republic monu- ment. There were two Mazda 323s, one registered in the name of Car- mel Camilleri, known at that time as 'Pissipellu'. And there was George Degiorgio 'ic-Ciniz', from Qawra. There were three other notorious persons: there was George Briffa 'l- Piccoli' and Degiorgio's brother Al- fred 'il-Fulu'." 2000 Alfred Degiorgio's fingerprints were found on items linked to a rob- bery from the G4S van. George Degiorgio had also been charged in court possession of un- licensed weapons, drugs and tools investigators believe were meant to be used to pick locks. Brothers in crime How the Degiorgio brothers' names cropped up in the case history of Malta's daring robberies. By MARIA PACE KURT SANSONE THE large, rusty metal struc- ture on the quay in the inner part of the Grand Harbour used to serve as a shed for po- tato exports. But last Monday it was the site of a massive police and army raid during which sev- eral men suspected of Daph- ne Caruana Galizia's murder were arrested. Intensive searches were conducted in the shed and other warehouses situated along the quay as the national and international spotlight turned to this promontory below the former Marsa pow- er station. Jutting out into the har- bour, the quay forms part of the Menqa area in Marsa, an industrial zone that is home to numerous warehouses, de- crepit buildings, offices and some residences. The area also houses the Marsa regatta club. But for many the area is also known as a den for hardened criminals. When MaltaToday visited the site on the day of the ar- rests, a man who works in the area was not surprised the police zoomed in on the zone. "There are two warehouses back there used by drug deal- ers," he whispered, indicating with his head the environs of the ex-potato shed. The area is ideal for such activity. It is a desolate place for most of the time and crucially has direct access to a quay where boats can berth and offload contra- band, drugs or illegal oil. "Every Saturday we see lux- ury cars – BMWs, Mercedes and Corvettes – driving in towards the warehouses," the worker told this newspaper. His is not an isolated un- derstanding of what goes on in the area. A Marsa resident confirmed the area was no- torious for the criminal ele- ments that often congregate in the area. "There are legitimate busi- nesses that operate there but some of the warehouses are just meetings places for un- savoury characters," the resi- dent said. Judging by the police op- eration last Monday, the de- scriptions of the area relayed to this newspaper by people who work and live in the area are not off the mark. Sources close to the Daphne Caruana Galizia investiga- tion have indicated that the Menqa area was the focal point for the criminal gang to which the Degiorgio brothers formed part of. And they may not have been the only criminals to operate in the area. MaltaToday is in- formed that the quay in the area has often been used by vessels suspected of carrying smuggled diesel. The police are not oblivious to the happenings in the area. It is a criminal hotspot but random raids without prior knowledge of specific activity are likely to yield nothing. A police source told this newspaper that a boat belong- ing to ex-international foot- baller Darren Debono berthed in the area had been searched some months ago on a tipoff that it may have been used for illegal activity. The search re- sulted in the negative. It was surveillance and so- The ex-potato shed: A den of CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Such is the delicate nature of the case at hand that many of Malta's top criminal lawyers are understood to have turned down the brief for a number of different reasons, all unwill- ing to be associated with these proceedings, despite the high- profile nature of the case. The three men were yester- day charged with homicide, involvement in organised crime, criminal conspiracy, criminal use of explosives, knowingly being in posses- sion of explosives for illicit purposes and relapsing. The men were identified by investigators who spent weeks sifting through thou- sands of phone calls connect- ed to the number that placed the call which detonated the bomb in Caruana Galizia's car and identified a number of persons of interest. The painstaking work linked up the calls to form a pattern that shows the bomb to have been assembled in various places, including Zebbug and Mosta. Monday's operation had been planned since November and had been launched as soon as the situation on the ground was favourable to a successful outcome. The bomb was triggered by mobile phone from miles away, after a spotter gave in- dication of Caruana Galizia's movements on the fatal day. Experts from Malta, Eu- ropol and the FBI are un- derstood to have all inde- pendently reached the same conclusions which led to the raid. The command structure of the criminal operation is un- derstood to have been very loosely connected and the as- sassination is thought to have been sub-contracted and then sub-contracted again to make the figure who ultimately or- dered Caruana Galizia's kill- ing harder to trace. That fig- ure has not yet been identified. Magistrate Neville Camill- eri presided over the arraign- ment while legal aide lawyer Benjamin Valenzia was ap- pointed defence counsel. Po- lice inspectors Keith Arnaud and Kurt Zahra prosecuted, with Assistant Commission- er Dennis Theuma oversee- ing the prosecution. Valenzia contested the va- lidity of the arrest, informing the court that the warrant of arrest had not been given to the men at the time of their arrest but 36 hours after they had been detained. Inspector Arnaud con- firmed that they had been giv- en the warrant today but said that he had informed the men that they were under arrest and explained the reason why they had been arrested at the time of their arrest at 8.15am on Monday. "You are under arrest for the Daphne Caruana Galizia" - Inspector