Convicted Explosives Importer Jomic Calleja Maatouk Added To Europol’s Most Wanted List
Jomic Calleja Maatouk, a convicted explosives importer and a man once described by a judge as a “lethal weapon,” has been placed on Europol’s most wanted list after disappearing from Malta.
Calleja Maatouk and his wife, Marzia Marimar Calleja Maatouk, have both gone missing, causing concern among family and authorities. The authorities are in the process of issuing a European Arrest Warrant for him and believe he may currently be in Serbia.
The 36-year-old was appealing a five-year prison sentence for importing explosives and attempting to buy poison over the dark web. Additionally, he was facing imprisonment for drug offenses.
He had been out on bail but failed to sign the bail book for several days. According to Europol, he has forfeited €51,000 in bail bonds and violated other conditions of his release.
Marzia, 23, was sentenced last month to 15 months in jail for cannabis possession with the intent to traffic. Family members have expressed grave concerns for her safety. They have been unable to reach her for days, and her mobile phone appears to be switched off. Moreover, the couple’s residence was abandoned and left in a mess, pointing to a fast escape.
Police sources suspect the couple likely fled Malta by sea as there have been no alerts for either at the airport or seaport. Investigators speculate that they may have used false passports to exit the country or traveled to Sicily by sea and drove through Italy from there.
In court, Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech had harrowingly described Calleja Maatouk as a man ready to unleash “the gates of hell upon whoever he deemed an inconvenience to be eliminated.” He was caught trying to import a variety of dangerous substances that included lethal doses of radioactive material Polonium-210, the highly toxic poison Ricin, the potent opioid Fentanyl, and C-4 explosives.
Calleja Maatouk is not new to escaping the law. In 2015, he was arrested in Sicily while on a train heading to the Italian mainland, fleeing from Malta where he faced criminal proceedings related to cannabis trafficking.
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