Maltese man linked to Italian police drug operation La Vallette remains at large

A certain John Spiteri named by Italian prosecutors as the Maltese distributor in a trafficking ring between Italy, Albania and Malta remains at large.

Spiteri’s name was included in judicial documents filed by Italian prosecutors in the Sicilian courts last week in which they asked for the incarceration of 16 people. Several Italian and Albanian nationals were also charged after police busted the drug network in an operation codenamed La Vallette.

According to the documents, Spiteri does not live in Italy and does not appear to have been arrested last Wednesday at the end of a four-year-long investigation.

Maltese law enforcement was not involved in the Italian operation, according to a spokesperson for the Maltese police force.

“The Maltese police was not involved and no arrests were made in Malta,” the spokesperson said, adding that no requests were received from the Italian police for collaboration.

Spiteri, 55, was referred to by Italian mastermind Rosario Amico, as ‘Gianni’ in transcripts of phone and conversation intercepts published by Italian prosecutors.

Spiteri, who does not appear to have any criminal cases to his name in Malta, was linked to one specific case of cannabis importation via the Virtu Ferries catamaran in June 2018.

The case concerned two other Maltese nationals, mentioned in the court documents, who were arrested by the Maltese police after driving off the Malta-Sicily ferry.

Fabian Catania and Tomislav Hegedus were stopped and a search of the Isuzu vehicle they were in, yielded 84kg of cannabis. Catania was the runner bringing the drugs to Malta and consigning them to Hegedus as part of the Maltese network operated by Spiteri.

Both men were charged and granted bail. It is unclear whether the court cases against them are still pending.

But intercepts presented by Italian prosecutors of a conversation between Spiteri and Amico revealed how the pair believed the arrested runners had named them with the Maltese police.

Spiteri told Amico that he had a problem with a drug courier and may have to take matters into his own hands. Spiteri’s statement appears to be a reference to Catania.

“We need to get rid of that asshole... that guy who opened his mouth... that guy who drove the truck,” Spiteri was heard telling his Sicilian counterpart during the conversation that happened in Amico’s car in Sicily in September 2018.

The Italian police investigation kicked off by looking at Rosario Amico, who in 2015 had also been a candidate for the Italian Socialist Party for the communal elections in Ipsica. He was not elected but Amico progressed from being a maintenance worker to owning luxury cars and property.

Amico was at the centre of a criminal enterprise that trafficked cannabis and cocaine from Albania to Puglia and onto Sicily, where he then distributed to Malta and other Italian regions.

Italian police tracked Amico as he travelled often to Malta, uncovering the international network he had built. When the two Maltese couriers were arrested in 2018, the Maltese authorities flagged Amico’s name to their Italian counterparts.

The four-year-long investigation came to an end with arrests last Wednesday, dismantling the drugs network that with its heart in Sicily and its limbs in Malta, Albania and other Italian regions.