The story of Jordan Azzopardi, who goes by ‘El Chapo ta’ Malta’ whenever someone will call him that, has taken another turn after a key witness to his arrest has opened up to Lovin Malta about the culmination of the police operation.

While Lovin Malta was unable to independently confirm whether the arrest described below was indeed the arrest of Azzopardi, the below happened on the night 13th of March just outside Għargħur’s McDonald’s Drive-Thru, the same day and place Azzopardi was arrested.

Check out the firsthand account in the witness’ own words below:

“I was having a coffee at the McCafé in Gharghur and we saw these policemen bodying a man against a car.”

At around 10:15pm, we entered the Għargħur McDonald’s from the parking area entrance and went up the stairs to the McCafé counter. There were two or three guys before us waiting for their order to be made, ordering a takeaway.

While they were waiting for their coffee, they went outside, possibly to have a cigarette, and they left the door open. There was a car parked in front of the entrance and it seemed like they went to chat near it.

The server behind the counter finished their orders, and tried to look for them, but they didn’t come back and she started to get flustered. She then took our order anyway, finished it and when we came to pay she couldn’t ring us up because these guys still hadn’t paid or come back in.

She went outside to tell them, looked really agitated, came shuffling in, and spoke to the manager, who told her to ring us up at the McDonalds counter.

In the meantime, the manager went to close the door and kind of stood behind it closed on the inside, trying to look out. So far, I’m just thinking: ‘These guys left without paying’, and not anything else

We sat down on the middle bench facing the McCafé counter, on the seats closest to the stairs, so we had a visual of outside through the glass doors. We saw some lights and my friend was like: ‘Dude, the police are here’.

At that point, everyone inside (maybe two other customers and around four or five staff) were just awkwardly looking outside, trying not to make it obvious.

A few minutes later, my friend saw police slam a tall, head-shaven, lanky guy in sweats against this car parked in front of the entrance.

At that point everyone was agitated, like ‘What the fuck’

Then, at least two people in plain clothes came in. One of them put on a blue latex glove and had a white padded envelope in his hand. He went behind the counter with the manager and the manager opened the cash register for him and he was counting the money and putting some in the envelope.

Meanwhile, we kept looking outside, trying to see what was happening with the guy. There were more people huddled around him and he looked like he was in pain and clearly complaining, but he was pretty calm and compliant.

While two guys held him, others searched him. Some other men were on the phone and smoking around him and the car outside.

Another man came in with latex gloves. He was on the phone, but I think he was part of the police force

Meanwhile, more customers kept coming in from the parking area up the stairs ordering and such, tipo, everything was going on the same as usual. It was hilarious – the manager kept on ringing up people at the till as the policeman was searching inside.

All in all, it took around 30 minutes or so.

The police then questioned some staff behind the counter; all the while people were still ordering. They then proceeded to search the till behind the McCafé counter.

The girl from before was even more agitated; there was a lot of tension and these two guys in plain clothes questioned her about the man (I couldn’t make out what they were asking).

As they interrogated her while sitting at the counter on the high stools, the McCafé server just continued serving customers

She gave them info; as this was happening, the police had ordered a tow truck and we saw them tow the car further away from the entrance, towards the petrol station next door.

The manager then took the till from the McDonald’s counter and gave it to the police – at this point I’m assuming they’re police, even though they’re in plain clothes.

We kind of lost visuals at this point, but we could see them lifting the car from the front. They then searched the car from underneath.

There was a woman sitting on the pavement at this point that might have been with him.

As we started to leave, I could see him still looking like he was in agony with his hands cuffed behind his back, standing next to the car with two policemen.

Before I lost sight of them, I saw the police light up a cigarette in the guy’s mouth.

What do you think of the saga of ‘El Chapo ta’ Malta’?

READ NEXT: ‘El Chapo Ta’ Malta’: How A Missing Pomeranian Brought Down The Island’s Most Wanted Drug Lord

Johnathan Cilia

Johnathan is an award-winning Maltese journalist interested in social justice, politics, minority issues, music and food. Follow him at @supreofficialmt on Instagram, and send him news, food and music stories at [email protected]