Police Play Down Reports Balkan Mafia Behind Hugo Chetcuti Murder
Hugo Chetcuti was stabbed in the stomach outside his newest Paceville restaurant last week
The police do not believe the murder of Hugo Chetcuti was the work of the Balkan Mafia but are currently treating it as one spurred by personal motives.
L-Orizzont this morning cited police sources as warning that the manner of Chetcuti’s murder – outdoors and in a public place – was synonymous with the Balkan Mafia and could signal a power struggle in Malta’s criminal underworld.
The newspaper’s police sources went on to warn that the rise of the Balkan Mafia in Malta could herald a rise in prostitution and in the importation of drugs from prostitution and questioned what will become of Chetcuti’s Paceville establishments given that they are “prone to money laundering”.
However, police sources who spoke to Lovin Malta played down this report and insisted there is absolutely no indication that the Balkan Mafia have infiltrated Malta. They said that Malta primarily gets its drugs by sea from Italy, and not from South America, and that while it is possible that some Serbian bouncers sell drugs to partygoers, this is in no way on a level that indicates organised crime. As for the prostitutes working in Malta, police believe that most of them hail from Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria and that their husbands are often involved in pickpocketing gangs.
“Just because someone was killed doesn’t mean it was the result of organised crime,” our sources said. “As it stands, we believe the murder was spurred by personal motives.”
Bojan Cmelik, a Serbian national who used to work at two of Chetcuti’s establishments, has been charged with the businessman’s murder but is pleading not guilty. His motives for allegedly killing Chetcuti remain unclear as he is refusing to speak to the police.
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