Police probing alleged brothel run by inspector’s brother

Two fires that took place within the space of one week inside a Ta’ Xbiex apartment building earlier this year were practically ignored by district police officers, who claimed both fires were ‘accidental’ and no foul play had been detected.

But MaltaToday has learnt that fresh investigations are now underway after senior police officers were alerted to new suspicions that the fires were arson attempts specifically targeting an elderly resident, in a bid to get her to move out of her apartment on Ugo Mifsud Street.

The police now suspect that the alleged arson was carried out in a bid to claim the apartment and use it for prostitutes’ clients.

An internal investigation is now dealing with both the arson and the alleged use of the apartment as a brothel.

But even more serious is a confirmation that the owner of the second and fourth-floor apartment, the latter being used for prostitution, is the brother of a police inspector – new information that has now led to an internal investigation.

The first fire occurred on Wednesday, 19 February at 2am, when a small fire broke out in one of the apartments. Firefighters from the Civil Protection Department evacuated residents from the building. But police officers closed the case when it was said that the fire started accidentally from a cigarette dropped onto a mattress.

Exactly a week later, at 1:20am on Wednesday 26 February, another fire broke out in the same place – once again, police officers came to the same conclusion without suspected anything untoward about the identical fire. Once again the case was closed.

Sources privy to the events however told MaltaToday that the four-apartment building hosts a group of five Filipino nationals living on the first floor, while an elderly resident lives on the third floor. The fourth-floor apartment was being used for prostitution, while the second-floor apartment was left damaged by the fires.

“It is clear that the owner of the apartment being used for prostitution has been putting pressure on the old lady so that she would sell him the apartment: he even asked her to show her a maisonette where she could move into, just to get her out of there,” friends of the elderly woman told MaltaToday.

“She is living in terror. Especially after the two fires. There’s no doubt that these were not accidental fires, but an attempt to make her move out. At night she has to worry about what might happen. And she doesn’t get a decent night’s sleep with the noise, screaming, and furniture being slammed in the floor above her.”

The brothel appears to be compartmentalised in around five cubicles separated by partitions, each used by a different prostitute with the doors individually locked by with a padlock.

The source said common scenes of fighting between prostitutes over broken padlocks, and shouting and screaming can be “the order of the day”.

The woman has lived in the same apartment for some 40 years. But three years ago, the owner of the apartment above hers moved in and soon purchased the top-floor apartment as well.

“Not long ago she received an anonymous letter telling her that the whole building will be turned into a whorehouse and that she should leave,” the friend of the elderly woman told MaltaToday.

The letter has been forwarded to the police for investigation, although it is unclear whether any progress has been made.

“She only goes out in the day to do her errands – and when she parks her car at night, the girls tell her to park elsewhere, because the vehicle makes it hard for then to be spotted by clients! The common area has now turned into a garbage dump, with litter left behind the door for days on end,” the friend, an eyewitness, said.

A senior police official told MaltaToday that officers of any rank were duty-bound by a solemn oath to report and arrest any person, whether a relative or not, who is known to be committing a crime.

“If any officer knows or even suspect of any illegality and does nothing about it, whether the suspect is a relative or not, then he could be charged as an accomplice,” the senior officer told MaltaToday.