Vessel used in human trafficking belonged to bomb victim’s partner’s company

The company owning an impounded fishing vessel, allegedly used in human trafficking, has connections to last week’s car bomb victim Martin Cachia – in spite of its representatives denying this in court as recently as last Thursday.

Cachia, 56, was killed on Saturday when an explosive device went off inside his car at Marsaskala. The police are understood to be investigating the possibility that he had been transporting the bomb, rather than being its intended victim.

He had been charged with human trafficking in 2013, after the police had carried out a search of a fishing vessel, the Liberty V.

The officers had been tipped off that 20 irregular immigrants were aboard. But waiting for police on the quayside, Cachia had told Inspector Mario Haber that the crew had rescued them from a vessel in distress.

According to documents seen by MaltaToday, the vessel Liberty V is owned by Liberty Fishing Company of Marsaskala. A search for the registered officers of that company reveals its director to be one, Elena Dubravnaya – who also occupies the roles of legal and judicial representative, as well as that of company secretary.

In that same document, Dubravnaya is listed as residing at the same Pembroke address as Cachia. The woman’s LinkedIn profile lists her surname as “Cachia,” and describes her position as a clerk working for Liberty Fishing. 

Liberty Fishing Company Limited had exhibited a note last Thursday showing the extract from the MFSA records seen by this newspaper, which lists Dubravnaya as company director, pointing out that Cachia is not mentioned anywhere.

Also seen by this newspaper is a letter, signed by Pierre Darmanin, from Zurrieq and dated 11 December, 2015, asking an unspecified recipient to permit Cachia to travel with him to Egypt. Darmanin is the director of Darmanin Fisheries Limited.

But the Attorney General’s Office had strenuously objected to this request, with lawyer Giannella Camilleri Busuttil describing Cachia as an untrustworthy man who was undergoing multiple criminal proceedings for serious crimes. He had breached previous bail conditions, said the lawyer. Inquiring Magistrate Joe Mifsud had turned down the request.

After being arrested in 2013 Cachia had refused to answer any questions during his interrogation, but his Egyptian crew soon changed their story of rescuing sailors in distress with the Liberty V having encountered problems with her bilge pump. They had contacted Cachia, who at first instructed them to return to shore, but shortly afterwards he called up a crew member and told him to stand fast and await another vessel that was sailing to their location to pick up their cargo of around 70 boxes of Russian vodka.

After the two vessels had gone alongside and before transferring the alcohol, the crew said that between 28 and 42 passengers embarked their vessel from the other boat, which had a Libyan crew. The passengers included around five women and four or five children, who they said were “probably Syrian.” It reached land at Ras Hanzir, near Paola and had successfully offloaded part of its human cargo into a van before drugs squad police arrived on the scene. The officers were told by the crew that around 20 people remained on board the vessel.

The crew are facing separate criminal proceedings.