Gangland vendettas: Galea’s murder linked to spate of bomb attacks

Bomb 'expert' Pietru Cassar's murder earlier this week in Zejtun could be linked to a series of bomb attacks that have taken place over the recent years, police sources have told MaltaToday.

Cassar, known as 'il-Haqqa', was a well-known explosives specialist who is thought to have manufactured a number of bombs at the height of the political tensions which edged the country to an open violent conflict under the Labour administrations between 1976 and 1987.

MaltaToday was told that Cassar, a former car dealer, produced bombs for thugs and violent factions close to the two major political parties in the late 70s and throughout the 80s.

Between 1978 and 1987, 142 bombs were planted, of which at least a 100 exploded. The culprits of such despicable acts were never caught and remain unknown till this very day.

TNT, gelatin and Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil were among the material in the explosives used during the bomb attacks of the 1980s.

Targets included the Commissioner of Police Lawrence Pullicino, the Air Malta chairman Albert Mizzi, the government's sensitive computer centre in Dingli, police stations, foreign embassies, the Archbishop's residence, the residencies of former Labour MPs Reno Calleja and Guze Cassar, the Mosta residence of Dom Mintoff's former private secretary Joe Camilleri, and a number of PN clubs.

Although Cassar was a well known figure in criminal circles, the police never had any proof of his involvement in the production of home-made bombs used in a series of attacks against party clubs and residences during the years of political violence.

Yet, it is believed that Cassar's murder is linked to a series of bomb attacks that took place in recent years, which targeted well known criminals such as Keith Galea and Paul Degabriele, known as is-Suldat, in 2012.

A preliminary investigation of the scene of crime in the murder that took place on Wednesday, 12 February, suggests that Cassar was shot in his Triq Santa Marija garage in Zejtun, to the neck and to the chest. At least three shots were fired from a 9mm calibre pistol.

He is believed to have walked out of his garage - listed as his residence - to seek assistance, however he collapsed as he tried to reach the doorstep of a residence opposite his garage where he drew his last breath.

While excluding that Cassar's murder was linked to the political violence which gripped the country 30 years ago, sources told MaltaToday that his death was linked to criminal activity, mainly in drug trafficking and usury.

Following the murder, the police searched the garage where Cassar lived, however it is not known whether any explosives were found.

In recent years, the police raided the garage in Zejtun on a number of occasions and in October 2012, the police's CID and the Explosives Ordinance Disposal unit from the Armed Forces had found explosives inside Cassar's garage, as well as unlicensed ammunition and two revolvers.

The 67-year-old pensioner was facing a number of charges over the possession of a large amount of explosive substance used in the production of bombs, three pistols, a sub-machine gun, ammunition - both old and new - fuses, detonators and other booby traps of an explosive nature. He was also accused of being in possession of a World War II bomb.

Testifying in court, Cassar had claimed that he kept the explosives and weapons for self-defence, in the eventuality that anyone would break into his house to rob or kill him.

Il-Haqqa had criminal priors, including having been a suspect on several hold-ups. He was also placed under an attachment order in October 2012, preventing him from transferring his assets under money laundering prevention laws.

Sources also said that Cassar was a self-taught, highly technical explosives expert who probably had some experience in the pyrotechnic industry in his younger days.

Bomb attacks

Reportedly the police are looking into whether there was a link between Cassar's assassination, last week's murder of Joseph Galea, known as 'il-Gilda', and the contract killings of Paul Degabriele known as 'is-Suldat', Joseph Cutajar known as 'il-Lion', and Josef Grech, known as 'il-Yo-Yo'.

Moreover, sources told this newspaper that Cassar's murder is linked to the bomb attack on Degabriele when a parcel bomb was discovered under his pick-up van in 2012.

Degabriele's van had been the target of a parcel bomb in Fgura. However, the intervention of the AFM's Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit had successfully detonated the bomb, which contained around 1kg of explosives.

The bomb consisted of three, welded metal cylinders heavily packed with explosive powder, believed to be the same used in the manufacture of fireworks.

The three cylinders were attached with wires to a mobile phone, which could have triggered the bomb underneath the van which was parked just two corners away from a primary school.

Degabriele was later murdered in May 2013, shot dead in his car outside the Enemalta customer care office in Marsa. He had earlier been questioned in connection with the December 2012 murder of Joseph Cutajar, found to have been shot dead near his car in Mill Street in Mosta; and Josef Grech, also shot dead a few hours before on the same day, in Bahar ic-Caghaq.

On Thursday, police investigating the Pietru 'il-Haqqa' murder also searched a residence belonging to Cutajar's relatives in Marsascala. Assistant Police Commissioner Silvio Valletta said investigators were considering "all avenues", including the possibility that the killings could all be connected.

It is also believed that Cassar could have been involved in other bomb attacks in recent years, such as that on Keith Galea in 2011, the Transport Malta offices in 2010, and Philip Cini a year earlier.

Keith Galea's car was destroyed in a big explosion in Hamrun in November 2011. The massive blast happened a few days after the man was released from prison, having served time for the attempted murder of an unnamed man in 2001. Explosives experts had said that the indications were that the bomb was made with highly explosive material such as TNT or dynamite, which also indicated a high level of sophistication in its fabrication.

The bomb's power and the technology used had also indicated that it was fabricated by experienced manufacturers, especially because high-explosive material and the detonators to set it off were not easily available.

In December 2011, a bomb blew up outside the Transport Malta offices in Pietà, injuring transport expert Major Peter Ripard, who had a leg amputated, and the head of the land transport section, Konrad Pulé. The bomb had been lowered from the pine grove located on a hill behind the office block and placed outside Pulé's office. Somebody hiding in the grove had probably triggered the bomb by pulling a string.

At the time, experts had also held that the powerful bomb was a sophisticated device, with a safety switch and a TNT core surrounded by bolts and metal fragments.

The explosive material used was not the sort used in fireworks or in quarrying, but TNT found in military bombs such as the unexploded bombs and shells fired by the British services around Filfla.

The most recent incident involving a bomb happened in September 2013, when an explosive device was set off at Torri l-Abjad bay in Armier. Pierre Cremona and William Farrugia had a lucky escape after an improvised explosive device went off in the terrace of Cremona's boathouse.

Cremona was a well-known figure to the police, in 2009 having pleaded not guilty to trafficking over 1.5kg of heroin. His name also cropped up in the case against the late Ray Pace - a judge who was accused of bribery and trading in influence - when his name was mentioned in a list of telephone conversations intercepted by the secret service.

A mobile phone attached to the device indicated that it was similar to the one placed under Paul Degabriele's pick-up truck a year earlier.

Generational change?

Sources told this newspaper that the violent escalation in recent years could be the result of a generational change in the Maltese criminal organisations.

In recent years a series of murders of well-known criminals - consisting mostly of middle-aged men - have given rise to suspicions that criminals involved in drug trafficking, usury and money laundering have resorted to eliminating each other.

However, police and murder historian Eddie Attard said that it would be imprudent to speculate on whether the separate murders were linked or whether there's an internal war between different gangs, especially since most of them remain unresolved.

Stressing that he would rather comment on resolved cases and hard facts, Attard said that the "biggest problem lays in the fact that the police have not yet resolved the cases".

However Attard said that there was a pattern in the method in the recent spate of murders, with most of them carried out by hit men who flee the scene on motorcycles or cars.

"Yet, these similarities do not mean anything unless cases are closed," he said.

It is believed that a new and younger generation of criminals are eliminating competition by murdering older criminals. The majority of victims in the gangland murders over the past years were in their 40s.

Although it is widely thought that such murders are carried out by foreign hit men, sources said that the new ruthless generation of criminals might be carrying out the assassinations themselves.

This week's murders took the tally to three for 2014. Last year, eight murders were recorded, while in 2012, a total of 11 murders took place.

Asked whether people should be alarmed by these murders, Attard said that "each and every murder alarms people, although I must say that the media inflates such sentiments".

However, the crime historian reassured that the rate of murders in Malta remains low, compared to other countries.

"Such murders do not only happen in Malta. Compared to other countries, we retain a low rate of murders, with an average of six or seven murders a year. Although we had a higher than average rate last year, with eight murders, we also had years with no murders recorded at all. Although it doesn't happen too often, such things are not reported by the media," Attard said.

TIMELINE - an escalation of criminal violence

April 2008

Car dealer Raymond Agius, 49, of Bahar ic-Cagħaq, is murdered at the Butterfly Bar in Birkirkara when two men wearing crash helmets arrived on a motorcycle, entered the bar and went straight for the victim; one of them firing a pistol hitting him in the head.

November 2010

Businessman Joe Baldacchino is shot in broad daylight near Hastings Garden, Valletta, by a motorcyclist who drove up behind the victim, unzipped his jacket, produced a firearm and shot him in the back. The 51-year-old died a month later in hospital.

December 2012

Joseph Cutajar, 46, from Marsascala is shot dead in Mosta. The man, known as il-Lion, was found dead in a pool of blood on the ground with his feet still in a car. He had been driving the car and was shot 12 times with a Kalashnikov, possibly by an assailant who had been waiting for him. Cutajar was undergoing court proceedings after having been accused of the murder of Kevin Gatt, 32 of Ghaxaq, and Stephen Zammit, 32 of Fgura.

December 2012

On the same day, Josef Grech, known as Il-Yo Yo, is found dead at Qalet Marku, Bahar ic-Caghaq, with a shot in the head. The 41-year-old man from Balzan was awaiting trial for association in the attempted murder of Patricia Attard.

February 2013

Ronald Galea, 65, of Birkirkara, is shot outside his meat factory in Hal Far by a hooded man who shot him with a .9mm semi-automatic handgun eight times in the back and head.

May 2013

Paul Degabriele, 48, from Fgura, is shot five times while in his car in Marsa by an assailant who appears to have shot from a white van. He was investigated over the 2012 murders of Joseph Cutajar and Josef Grech.

July 2013

The body of notorious drug trafficker Mario Camilleri known as 'l-Imniehru' is found in a field in Birzebbugia, next to the corpse of his son Mario Camilleri Jnr. Jason Galea and George Galea are accused of the murder.

January 2014

The lifeless body of Guzi Galea, known to his friends as 'Il-Gilda', is found on the seat of his Kia Sorento outside his residence in Marsa by his own relatives. Galea, who was known to the police in connection with illegal gambling and usury, is shot around 17 times by a .7.62 calibre assault rifle in a drive-by shooting.