Man named in Daphne Project investigated over cigarette smuggling in 2011

The man reported to have called Alfred Degiorgio – one of the men accused of murdering Daphne Caruana Galizia – moments after calling the journalist herself, was investigated for cigarette smuggling back in 2011.

Pierre Darmanin, the owner of a number of fishing vessels and a property company, had been investigated after his ship was boarded by the Armed Forces during a routine check in 2011.

They discovered cigarette containers stowed away in various parts of the boat, which was eventually found to be carrying over 550,000 cigarettes and 86kg of tobacco.

Darmanin was placed under the spotlight by Italian newspaper La Repubblica, a member of the Daphne Project consortium, after it claimed he had called Caruana Galizia on a 2016 story concerning a boat of his implicated in a human trafficking investigation.

The newspaper said he had called the journalist demanding a rectification of the report and then called economy minister Chris Cardona and right after Alfred Degiorgio.

But that report was directly contradicted by the Malta Independent on Sunday, which cited its own sources close to the investigation saying the call to Cardona did not take place – instead insisting that it was Caruana Galizia who called Darmanin, who right after made a call to George Degiorgio and his brother Alfred. They said that investigators had found regular contacts between Darmanin and the Degiorgios.

One possible explanation for Darmanin’s ease of contact with the Degiorgios is the fact that his own ships are berthed by the ‘potato shed’ at the Tal-Braken quays in Marsa, where the two brothers were arrested in a police raid last December.

“I have fishing trawlers,” Darmanin had told the court in one court case, unrelated to the Degiorgios. “I need to go through the potato shed to get to my trawlers.”

In another case, Darmanin was charged with having stolen water from a government mains supply at the Marsa quays, which he used to fill a water tank encased in a metal cage inside a small van.

Murder patterns

In the 2016 blogpost, Caruana Galizia – assassinated outside her home in Bidnija on 16 October 2017 – was describing the patterns with which members of the underworld were being executed in a spate of revenge murders where car bombs were being used to kill fuel smugglers, while drug traffickers were shot by hit-men.

She noted one exception, Josef Cassar, a haulier targeted by a car bomb on the Aldo Moro road in Marsa. Cassar, 40, the director of S&T Services of Marsa, lost both legs when an improvised device was placed underneath the driver’s side of his Ford Transit van.

Caruana Galizia wrote that Cassar was also linked to the ship MV Silver King, owned by Pierre Darmanin, whom she dubbed the “black sheep of the well-respected Tan-Niksu family of Zurrieq”.

Caruana Galizia went on to say that another bomb victim – fisherman Martin Cachia, who was killed in January 2016 – had been listed on a letter signed by Darmanin asking an unspecified recipient to permit Cachia to travel with him by ship to Egypt. According to the slain journalist, Darmanin had contacted her to inform her that he had sold the ship when it was released from impound in 2013. “He doesn’t remember to whom he sold it, though he thinks it was to a company owned by a certain Tony. He says that he was not charged with diesel-smuggling (he was investigated).

When asked about his written request that Martin Cachia, who was murdered four weeks later, travel with him to Egypt, Darmanin said: ‘My signature was forged. Martin used to do things like that.’ When asked why a diesel-smuggler forging a travel request would pick out his name of all people’s, Darmanin said: ‘Those of us who own ships (vapuri) all know each other’,” Caruana Galizia said.

Cigarettes found at sea

With the exception of Caruana Galizia’s blogpost, Darmanin was a relatively unknown character. He is the owner of four companies including Darmanin Fisheries and Silver King Limited, both of which owned fishing vessels at some point.

In his explanation to the authorities about how he came to be in possession of a large consignment of cigarettes that were discovered on his ship back in 2011, Darmanin said he had spotted 12 containers literally floating out at sea, when on his way back to Malta after having passed on some fishing nets to another vessel.

He said that he had opened one of them and managed to retrieve the cigarettes. According to court proceedings however, Darmanin could not name the person’s name or the vessel he claimed to have passed on the nets to. “From my experience, the chances are that a container which is open in the water, sinks,” the testifying lieutenant noted.

In another case, Darmanin’s ship Silver King was impounded and investigated along with three other vessels, after undeclared diesel was found on board.

In comments to MaltaToday back in 2013, Darmanin had said that the fuel was purchased legally, and that he had produced invoices as evidence, including taxation documents.

According to the law, once vessels are 24 miles from Malta they must declare any previously undeclared fuel they are carrying. But those familiar with the industry have said that the norm was for vessels to enter port and declare the fuel upon arrival, so that it gets deducted from their government duty-free diesel allowance.

Contacted by MaltaToday last week, Darmanin said he was unaware of the La Repubblica report connecting him to the Degiorgios. He confirmed having spoken to Daphne Caruana Galizia in October 2016 but was evasive about the alleged phone calls to Cardona and Degiorgio.