Police Bust International Pickpocketing Ring In St Julian’s Sting Operation
Malta’s police have arrested three individuals believed to form part of an international organised crime ring.
In a statement this morning, the police said that three Romanian men aged 54, 40 and 39, had been arrested in a sting operation in St Julian’s.
All three men are understood to form part of an international pickpocketing ring and would regularly visit crowded places, including buses, in order to rob their victims.
Police investigations found that the men had committed a number of thefts in Malta before travelling to another country.
The men were apprehended by the police in what it described as ‘intelligence-led policing’ involving a number of its specialised branches, as well as district police.
Through collaboration with foreign police forces, as well as Europol and Interpol, it was determined that the men had been committing similar crimes at tourist hotspots around Europe since 2010.
Intelligence gathered by the police alerted them to the fact that the men were to return to Malta on Monday from Budapest in Hungary.
They were monitored by the police as they left the airport for St Julian’s by bus and were arrested as they arrived at their St Julian’s hotel.
They are expected to be charged in court later today.
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