Maltese Army Staff Sergeant Had Romantic Relationship With Drug Kingpin When He Was Murdered
An army staff sergeant who had contacts within Malta’s secret service was in an intimate romantic relationship with a notorious drug kingpin at the time of his murder in 2015.
Lovin Malta is informed that Sergeant Carmen Pace is the unnamed “female companion” who was present when Raymond Caruana was murdered outside his San Blas residence in Haz-Żebbuġ on 20th March 2015.
A total of 30 rounds had been fired. A burnt car with an assault rifle was found in Rabat days later. At the time of his death, he was believed to be one of Malta’s high-profile criminals.
Documents show that the sergeant was actually promoted to staff sergeant a few months after the murder. Sources were insistent that top officials in the Armed Forces were well aware of the links the AFM official had with the notorious criminal.
They claim that the staff sergeant was a crucial tool for Caruana, who evaded arrest despite his position among the top echelons of the Maltese criminal underworld.
She was allowed to retire in 2018 and is now subject to a taxpayer-funded pension.
Sources also detailed a serious misdemeanour from the staff sergeant in question in 2011 while Pace was working in the Malta Security Services. They were reluctant to divulge further – however, she was removed after major issues were discovered among the top brass of the army and security service officials at the time.
Pace was removed from the MSS because of these suspicions but was allowed to return to the AFM.
Bullet holes on Caruana's garage - Source: TVM
Caruana is believed to be the man who triggered a chain of deaths between 2011 and 2015 after a large amount of cocaine from his warehouse was stolen.
Police believe that Caruana could have been behind the deaths of Joseph ‘Il-Lion’ Cutajar and Paul ‘Is-Suldat’ Degabriele, who are suspected of being part of the heist along with Daphne Caruana Galizia murder suspect Alfred Degiorgio.
Cutajar was killed on 13th December 2012, just a few months after killing two men in a shootout in March 2012. Cutajar described the two men as hitmen. He was shot 12 times with a Kalashnikov assault rifle as he emerged from his car in Mosta.
Degabriele, meanwhile, was murdered in May 2013. He had a lucky escape a few months earlier after he noticed an unidentified individual placing a bomb under his car. In May 2013, he was shot three times in the head and twice in the chest at close range in front of Sammy’s Bar in Marsa.
Reports have since claimed that the death of Caruana, who at the time was believed to be one of Malta’s high-profile criminals, left a void that was exploited by Robert and Adrian Agius, the Tal-Maksar brothers.
They would later ascend to the top levels of the criminal underworld in Malta – and have since been charged on offences related to the murders of Daphne Caruana Galizia and Carmel Chircop.
Lovin Malta has reported how the two brothers had, and may still have, moles within Malta’s police force and security services.
Questions were sent to both the Armed Forces of Malta and the Home Affairs Ministry.
Why do you think action was never taken?
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