Caruana Galizia was reacting to a story published by Sunday Times of Malta yesterday, which reported that police have identified two brothers, who are well-known in the Maltese criminal underworld, as being part of the web behind the journalist’s assassination.

The report didn’t name the brothers but said the police suspect them to have had several dealings in transnational crime, including an ill-fated investment in a Dutch brothel which saw one of them swindled of some €100,000, as well as narcotics and cigarette smuggling. 

They also reportedly have contacts within the Albanian criminal underworld and indeed police are investigating whether the explosive device which triggered the car bomb had originated in Eastern Europe.

Sunday Times reported that police believe there are four layers to the journalist’s assassination. The suspected triggermen, brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio and Vince Muscat, have been charged with the murder and there have been reports that Muscat is cooperating with the police.

The two other brothers are higher up in the pecking order and are suspected of procuring the explosive device and material and of working directly with a “middleman”. This mysterious “middleman” served as the third link in the chain and acted as a go-between to the suspected masterminds, at least one of whom is suspected to be a “major businessman” who Daphne Caruana Galizia had investigated.

Adrian and Robert Agius were among ten men who were arrested by police in connection with Caruana Galizia’s assassination in December 2017. They and four other suspects ended up getting released on police bail, while the Degiorgios and Vince Muscat ended up charged with murder.

Daphne Caruana Galizia had written about Adrian Agius in the past, given that he was the business partner of Ryan Schembri – the former owner of More Supermarkets who fled Malta with his family in 2014 to escape loan sharks to whom he had owed millions of euro. Ryan Schembri is the cousin of Keith Schembri, the chief of staff of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. 

Caruana Galizia wrote three blogposts about Adrian Agius – all dated 12th October 2014. 

In one post, she cited how his father Raymond Agius, a smuggler, was shot in the head at the Butterfly Bar in Birkirkara in 2008 and how his associate Terrence Gialanze had vanished off the face of the earth in 2012 after telling his family he was going fishing. Gialanze, who at 23 years old owned a pricey BMW SUV, a Bentley and a yacht, used to rent a large villa close to Caruana Galizia’s residence in Bidnija.

Agius then sent a cryptic message to Caruana Galizia to deny that he had fled the island.

“The Phoenix for your information I did not escape , I am on a business trip and I will be back . I now you don t have balls but if you find them some were in yours wife pocket lets meet up and we sort things out . You are just a low life afraid to show your face to hide under stupid name phoenix,” he said.

His brother Robert Agius was in the news last October when a court ruled that his rights had been breached because a case against him for alleged involvement in a heroin-trafficking conspiracy had taken too long to conclude. Agius was charged in 2012 but the case ground to a halt when a witness who had told police of his drug dealing involvement refused to testify while criminal action in her regard was still pending.

Caruana Galizia shared a report on the court case to back up his argument about the flaws in Malta’s criminal justice system.

Lovin Malta has asked the police to respond to these latest claims and is awaiting a response.

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