Police commissioner insists Swieqi police raid was at the correct address

Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa insisted on Wednesday a police raid which took place at a Swieqi apartment block on Tuesday, was at the correct address, but said the residents were not suspects in the case.

“The address was not wrong, but the people [detained] were not the suspects related to that case,” Gafà told reporters on Wednesday.

This comes after four Swieqi residents, in a judicial protest filed on Tuesday, described a terrifying ordeal in which heavily armed police officers allegedly stormed their apartment, pointed guns at them and handcuffed them after arriving at the wrong address.

The alleged incident happened in Triq is-Swieqi last month. According to the protest, the officers displayed no identification and did not explain why they had forced their way into the apartment. 

One resident reportedly opened the door after hearing commotion in the common area, thinking there was a fight. As he did so, an armed officer allegedly pointed a rifle at his forehead, causing him to retreat and alert his flatmates.

Gafa revealed that several other raids had been carried out within the same apartment block, adding that investigations are still ongoing and no further details can be shared.

“To this day, it does not appear to me that there was any fault on the part of the police,” he said. “We are dealing with a drug trafficking case linked to organised criminal networks that pose a significant risk to the police. In this case, the police made the necessary preparations and planning.”

Police said the raid was part of a wider drug investigation linked to the discovery of 76kg of suspected cocaine in Gozo, with an estimated street value of €9 million.

Yesterday, government figures including Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri defended the police, saying the arrest warrants were issued by the magistrate.

The Nationalist Party on the otherhand described the minister’s parliamentary response as “surreal”, noting that he sought to blame the magistrate for the mistake when claiming the police acted on the court’s orders.

The Opposition pointed to broader systemic failures, stating that the government has “lost control over the national address registry and over who is truly residing in homes across Malta and Gozo”. 

They cited the large volume of correspondence from the central government, including hospital appointments, health service notifications and treasury cheques, that continues to be sent to individuals who do not live at their registered addresses.

They called on the Home Affairs minister to clarify the situation and clarify whether the persons who were meant to be arrested actually reside at that address, but were not present at the time of the raid – leading to the wrongful arrest of individuals who are not suspects in this case or this was instead the result of confusion within the government’s address system, where the four wanted individuals are officially registered at that address but do not actually live there.

The Nationalist Party concluded by calling on the Labour Party to “stop resorting to fear tactics every time its policy failures are exposed, failures that are leaving the police without the adequate resources they need to carry out their duties properly.”

PL: Carabott's behavior undermines the work of the institutions

The Labour Party in turn has called out Carabott for what they claim is the undermining of the police’s work when rushing to post about the Swieqi police raid.

“Instead of learning that serious matters are not the place for hasty and partisan politics, Carabott continued to persist in the error. And now he brought in Joe Giglio,” they said.

They referred to Camilleri’s statement in parliament on Tuesday. 

They said that if there is anyone who is turning on the magistrate it is Darren Carabott. 
They concluded him by accusing him of not knowing how to regulate himself, but he continues to persist in an attitude that undermines the work of the Police Force.

On the other hand, the Nationalist Party have claimed that Gafa is contradicting information given by Camilleri in Parliament yesterday, where they also accused the minister of attempting to shift blame onto the magistrate following an alleged wrongful arrest caused by a police raid. 

“This, despite the fact that Minister Camilleri yesterday placed the blame on the Magistrate, even though, as Minister, he should know that the addresses where such raids are carried out are always determined on the basis of information provided to the Police by his own government. This was, in fact, confirmed by Commissioner Gafà himself,” they said.