Episode 1: Drive-By In Birkirkara

There are crooks everywhere you look. Now the situation is desperate.

Eighth of October twenty fifteen, just before seven am a sleepy Thursday morning, in the town of Birgerkara, in the center of Motawn, tightly wound medieval streets, beautiful, pale yellow limestone churches, all just beginning to catch the first rays of the early morning Mediterranean sun. Inside the houses and apartments here, most people are still asleep or just waking up.

But here, on the top floor of an early empty multi story garage on john Board Street, three men are wide awake, crashing the seats of a stolen Toyota Parks so they can watch the road down below.

They wait.

In this episode, we've taken evidence heard in the courtroom and reconstructed what happened according to that testimony. We've dramatized the evidence and provided color in places without changing any of the material facts or allegations.

Okay, JJ dot lest.

In the driving seat is George de Georgia, around fifty two years old, thinning hair, a little overweight, but an intimidating presence. He's officially long term unemployed, but also able somehow to support a remarkably luxurious lifestyle, luxury cars, including a white Corvette, and his own fishing yacht. George is well known to the police in his line of work. Most people know him by his Multese street name of Itchinese, the Chinese one. In the way of these names, the

Begin in the back seats, watching the streets. The two men, allegedly.

One of them is Vincent il Kochu Mouscat. His Maltese nickname translates roughly to the sound made by someone coughing. This recreation is based on his courtroom testimony about that morning.

And after him then a list.

Like Chinese George, Vincent the Coff is middle aged with decades of work behind him. He too has a reputation with the police, and allegedly, alongside Vincent the Cuff in the car is the final member of the team. Jamie Vella, in his early thirties, the youngest of the three, also known to the police. He's seen as knowledgeable about firearms. By the other two. There's an AK forty seven, a Russian the designed submachine gun, resting under deceit near him.

This October morning, in twenty fifteen, in this busy channel in Malta, these men in the car are a team, even if you like a family.

For now, and there is another thing that unites these three their shared and bloody future, the reason we're telling you this story. At least two of these men will one day be the foot soldiers and the murder of my country's most famous journalist, the assassination of a beloved wife, mother, daughter and sister, and for me and many Maltese people also an inspiration. The journalist's name is Deafnely Karwana Galitzia, not Jane.

Shane.

But on this day in twenty fifteen, as these men sit impatiently in a stolen car in an empty multi story garage that is still a long way off, on this morning, we will later be told in court they are all still waiting for just one thing, the signal to start their work. And then Vincent Lecough spots something.

Maltese for heads up. I can see him. He's coming up the street. Some way off. A man in a business suit is approaching, walking towards the entrance to the garage Chinese George. George drives down through the almost deserted garage, heading to street level. They don't have long They need to be at the entrance before this man reaches the building.

As George drives, Jimmy and Vincent allegedly pull on Balaclava's it's good to look the part. They pull over to a space on the ground floor with a view of the entrance onto the street. It won't be long now.

Along the walls of each floor are dozens of small, lockablelee garages. You can rent one out for a small fee. It's more private and secure than parking on the street, but that also means that if you use one of these garages regularly the same time every day, people can guess where to find you.

The street entrance opens, and the man in the suit walks calmly in a leather bag in one hand, patting his pockets with the other hand to find his keys.

Oblivious, the Toyota edges forward twenty meters away in the back seat, Jamie allegedly lowers the window and takes the safety off the revolver ten meters five meters.

The man in the suit has his keys out now and he's standing just in front of Garage number forty six, close to the entrance. As he puts the key in the lock, he turns his back to the Toyota for a moment, pulling the shutter open with his.

Weight, and that's when the car passes right next to him, close enough to the chiut untouched. The shots are a most point blank, a whole clip.

It's clear there's no need for a second pass. According to Vincent Lakoff, Chinese George drives straight through the exit into the back streets of Berkha Kara. They've rehearsed the route to the safe house. Jamie in the back seat stashes his weapon from here. It's just routine, planned for the last it's what they do.

The man in the suit's name is carmelker Kopp, a lawyer, married thirty five years, in business with some dangerous people. As is normal for this kind of crime in Malta, no one will be convicted for his murder. As is normal for this kind of crime in Malta, no one will even be arrested. For years.

No one is chasing these men now through Berkhakara, and no one will. These men are free to kill again and again until one day, two years later, when they make the mistake of taking out Malta's most famous journalist.

This is the story of how my home, a smaller European democracy, a picture postcard tourist destination, came to be a place where the criminals set the rules, where crime and politics merge, a place where some people can literally get away with murder. This is a story you might have heard part of before, but it's only now, in twenty twenty four, that we are coming close to the full truth. From iHeart Podcasts, Topic Studios and Vespucci, this

Thank you very much, sir.

Six years ago I didn't know John except from the TV, but now he's an old friend. He's a former BBC man and if you ask me, one of the best investigative and war reporters in the world. And probably if you ask him.

To oh, leave it out, galv I'm only here to make trouble for the wrong kind of people.

John stuck up inconvenient truths on subjects as varied as scientology, North Korea and the life of Gillame Maxwell. And for years he's chronicled the corruption and crimes of Vladimir pu sometimes on the front lines of Ukraine.

When a journalist is murdered. It's not just a tragedy for a family. It's an attempt to shut down what we all do. Journalism is about trying to tell truth about the world, to keep power and money in check, to give a voice to the voiceless. The moment I arrived in Malta after Daphne's murder, I sense this wasn't just the snuffing out of one extraordinary woman. Someone was trying to silence a whole country, to prevent it from

A few years ago, when my writing about corruption led to me and my family receive incredible threats, I decided to leave the country temporarily. When I was stuck a long way from home, wondering if I was doing the right thing. John was one of the friends who visited me and became someone I could turn to. We've written a book together about Defnie and Malta's recent history, along with our co author, mafia expert Carlo Bonini. But a lot has changed since that book came out five years ago.

Although do please buy it. Murder on the Malta Express is still available in all good bookshops.

We now know a lot more about men like Chinese George and Vincent, the cough and the men who were accused of paying them. So what this Jack? I've invited John back to my home country. You see, I'm proud of this wonderful complex place. Hello John, Good morning morning. We're in Touchbash, which is part of the Northern Harbor, just north of Aleta, and we're going to the boat right, that's for that.

I've got my sea legs on.

Let's go meet.

Ask. So what's this? What's the ship called again? A gin Fizz? Gin Fizz. I'm already thinking of that gin Fiz as we speak. All right, guys, you guys have probably been on Boast before, but I still have to go through the safety briefing by law.

Can everybody swim?

Yeah? Any medical issues I need to know.

About a few facts to begin. Mota is the smallest country in the European Union, a chain of islands in the Mediterranean between Sicily and North Africa. Our whole country is less than half the size of New York City or London. It's also densely populated. There are half a million people here and plenty of history. We speak our own unique language derived from medieval Arabic eat footed that might remind you of Italy. And we're ruled as a

So we're passing into Grand Harbor, which is one of the most beautiful in the world.

And there's something.

About the honeycomb stone of Malta and the construction it was roughly the same time that constructed Venice of that kind of era.

It's extraordinary.

Found years off.

So Venice is when venices twelve hundred, Venice is all up, you're about four hundred years off.

I know nothing.

Look, this is a beautiful place, and I can see why John thinks of Venice when he's sees it. In one direction from the boat, you can see a skyline jump built full of Renaissance churches, domes and forts, all crisscrossed with waterways and inlets, ferries and sailing boats.

There's a gown a little boat zooming along. Looks rather cool.

But alongside the history there is also the other Malta here, the new Malta of multi story concrete hotels and luxury apartment blocks, crowding right up to the water, catering for the new elite, and for some this is a playground.

So the scale of the money here in boats is an extraordinary umber passing one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight nine, and not quite super yachts, but they're pretty nice yachts.

Well, if I'm careful where to look, I still love this place. This is my country. This bay is where I was brought up. This is where I went to swim, This is where I crossed the ferry to go to Valletta, my first job. And I see on one side hasn't changed much. And if you see photos from fifty or one hundred years ago hasn't changed much. On the other side, you blink and it's six stories higher.

And this is rash of concrete. Acne is a symbol of the dirty money that is besieging Malta.

Well you call it a symbol, John, it's actually a product. So some of it, at least, it's money being recycled from illicit activities and tax evasion.

So as we round the point, beautiful old honeycombstone to our right, enormous cruise ship like a block of flats, ugliest sin. And the reason they're here is because Malta is a tourist paradise. But underneath these extraordinary beauty, in this this heft of history, there are some dark, dark shadows.

This is a place where.

Dark power and dark money likes to hang out. And if you try and tell truth to that dark money, in that dark power, if you're a journalist, it can be a very dangerous place.

Indeed.

October twelfth, twenty seventeen, opposition leader's wife says convicted drug dealer's girlfriend is one of my closest and most trusted friends.

So Manuel, what are we listening to?

Well, as with many things. To understand how we got here, you need to go back a while, in this case a decade ago to the mid twenty tens. Deers leading up to Daphanie's death. Remember blogs.

Drug dealer's girlfriend says she and opposition leader's wife are close friends in Malta.

They never really went away like sisters. At that point, I'd left politics and was working as a software salesman, and like many people in Malta, I'd begin each day by checking one politics blog, in particular a blog by Dfhanie Karwana Galicia.

In this case, the husband dislieve with asked the actors Sienna Miller to read these extracts from Daphne's right.

Friend is a convicted lifelong drug dealer who was released from jail a few months ago.

I remember that time in Britain, too Big dreams that blogging could provide an alternative to newspapers and TV channels, a place where you could get your political news a bit more unfiltered.

Well, in Malta, Dafanie's blog wasn't just a blog for political geeks. It was bigger than that. It made the news. It's been often said, was read by more people each day than any of Malta's newspapers. The newspapers did not dispute that claim.

A bill to bring Malta's anti money laundering legislation in.

Line with and here what's her secret? Defney's style wasn't dry paper of record staff. It was chetty, sarcastic.

Are we supposed to laugh?

Or what?

Often? Angry? Sometimes gossipy, sometimes viciously personal at all?

April fifteenth, twenty.

Sixteen, always gripping.

Malta is not a normal country, but a bizarre island, crowded with peculiar people who are either completely mad, very dotty, deeply stupid, totally malicious, or a combination of all.

Of those things.

Here is what I think that we have descended to the pits of ineptitude, abuse of power, trading in influence, cronyism, and corruption.

I think it was quite anoveative. It was the narve. Daphne's narrative was quite unique. She had a brilliant command of the English language.

Herman Grek is editor in chief of the Times of Malta, the country's actual paper of record, part of the journalistic establishment.

And she was funny, and she was also brutal towards you know people she didn't like. In the case of Daphnie, was a one woman show, and she was out there without an editor, and she could say whatever she wanted. So that's what she presented.

For most of my life. The big Motives newspapers like Herman's have been considered mostly serious and formal, while TV stations are the opposite, highly partisan, tabloid and openly backing one political party or the other. However angry Daphne's blog would be she could be trusted to have done her research, and any attempts to intimidate Daphnie would also end up in her blog.

October fifth, twenty seventeen, ant Andrea Kuttayer, the owner of an illegal zoo in which big cats have bred for a lucrative market, has just wrung me to take issue with the fact that I wrote about his illegal operation earlier this afternoon. He did not ring to correct any reported facts, but to object to being placed in the limelight. Leave me alone and I'll.

Leave you alone.

And she was fearless.

I am a very big millionaire, he said, do you have any idea how much money I have? I don't need to justify myself with anyone. Well, that's exactly the problem. I said. You think that because you have lots of money you can do what you please, that you are more equal than others before the law, And unfortunately you're being proved right on that.

And that goes to the heart of Dapinice's philosophy. What connected so many of her stories the feeling that those with power and money in Morta had ceased to believe that the law applies to them. One rule for them, another for the rest of us. That multis society, the court's political parties, the press, ordinary voters, all of us were struggling to meet that onslaught.

Was she on the.

Money man, Well, well, yes, in my view, I'd say so, it's how it feels living here. And Daphne's response to that situation was simple. She wouldn't let them get away with their lies, not the big lies or the small ones.

But that can be dangerous for someone working on their own.

Yes, and because those with power and money and Malta were so used to getting their way, definitely found that they often didn't hide their lives all that.

Well, Daphnie didn't just use the freedom that her blog gave her to fight corruption or take on the powerful. Unlike in the newspaper, there was no editor looking over Daphne's shoulder for a second opinion on what she was posting. That meant less interference, but it also meant that anyone could end up in her sights.

Some of those posts about ordinary people make for uncomfortable reading.

I'm sure it's not just my imagination. When I look at stills and films of Labor mass meetings, I think that they looked just like a white trash convention. It's almost incredible.

The Labor Party was the party in government at that time. The real DEFNI, or at least the face to face Deafni, was very different from blogging Deafnie. Less confrontation and less caustic.

How well did you know a man?

Well?

I knew her professionally, most as a small place, and we both worked in media and politics, and we shared some of the same fears and campaigns against corruption and dirt to money in politics. She was already an inspiration to me, and when she started breaking her really big stories, the ones that alleged serious crimes committed by powerful men, well then she was a hero to many people too.

So I knew as a sister.

This is Corin Vella, the younger sister of Daphne Carouana Galitzia.

I only knew her sort of in a domestic environment, and the domestic in the sense of family environment, that of off duty kind of thing. The fact that she was prolific in her writing didn't mean it was the only thing she was doing. I mean, she did all kinds of things. She traveled, she know, she had a lovely home, she loved gardening, and she had a life

It's one of the real risks of any kind of high profile journalism. People will assume they know the real you from what they read, whatch or listen to.

I mean, I do understand why people thought that she was her journalism. She wrote so much that it was hard to imagine how she had a life outside her writing. There could be multiple updates in a single day, and in a country as small as small town, there's really no way to stay in on it. If you are known and you go out in public, you will meet people who know who you are and they may have opinions about you that they want to share.

I mean, it was a general sense of unease. But it wasn't like you were actually going to tell her to please stop doing this because you're making me nervous. Because you don't do or don't do something because of how someone else feels. That wouldn't be a reasonable request, and it didn't seem right to expect someone to be quiet because someone else couldn't tolerate their views.

In her final few years, some politicians in particular became favorite targets for Daphne's blog posts, and after her death, these men would find themselves answering difficult questions, questions about how definitely had damaged their public images and about how they had responded how they had acted towards her.

When we wrote a book together, it was clear that these politicians were already part of this story, but we didn't know the half of it, in terms of how the politics set the backdrop for everything else that would follow her. Perhaps the most importance of Daphne's targets was the then Prime Minister of Malta himself, Joseph Muscat, in office from twenty thirteen onwards.

Definitely had a lot to say about him, a lot of it pretty strongly opinionated.

May seventh, twenty twelve.

Joseph Muscat a bloody fraud.

Every seventh, twenty thirty.

Like all cult leaders and gang leaders, Joseph Muscat uses decorative women to shore up his manhood and make himself seem magnetic.

Every thirteenth, twenty thirteen.

Did Joseph Muscat write his doctoral thesis?

First?

Twenty thirteen Joseph Muscat Power Hungry Scott first twenty fifteen. Joseph Muscat the quintessential demographic fourteenth, twenty sixteen. Joseph Muscat the Donald Trump Factor.

So she's not really a fan of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

Is she?

You could say?

So?

Men like the Prime Minister weren't just politicians to Deafni, or even just allegedly corrupt politicians. For her, they represented a whole new political culture threatening undermining our nation.

Malta is great an economics.

This campaign, added from twenty sixteen, is typical slick, mostly in motives, but with matterings of English. Both languages are widely spoken in the country, although English is seen as the language of the more.

Educated services, all industrial films.

Moscow is fresh faced here in his early forties. He's been in power three years now, seeking re election. He's reminding us of all the great things about our country, including his government.

It's clear he's going for the approachable, look, cheerful, quite informal chachi.

Nadiv tala and the laudesh if.

But then he's also speaking to us in the lobby of a grand government building, big staircase, flags everywhere. He's projecting power, but with a human face.

That grand building is castile our White House or Downing Street. And yes that's the message. I am in power, but I'm just also an ordinary guy. And I speak to you in Maltese. But I can switch into English too if I need.

A little laussh. If you reach Malta is great. We should just say it a little bit more.

Of Another of his slogans was Malta tan Alcohol, meaning Malta belongs to all of us, sort of a Maltese version of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's We're taking back control or President Donald Trump's make America great Again. Mouscat's first government of twenty thirteen was supposed to be a new start for this country. We had been used to an older generation of leaders socially conservative courses, often perceived

Extremely charming, very popular, I would say, quite intelligence. He came across in the beginning as a bit of a revolutionizing his own party, you know, came across as a very pro severe rights, very pro business, and he changed alta dramatically.

Not charming in everyone's eyes.

Though.

Here's corn Defne's sister.

I don't know what the word is, a lap start. Let's say it's just really irritating personality.

I see why this wouldn't wash with Daphnely.

She gave a clear message to her readers, don't believe the hype. Underneath the image management. She believed there was a deeply cynical operator.

She attacked him from the word goal. She she never liked him. Everything basically about him, about his way of living, about his politics, even his own you know, his family.

We've been aware of him for a long time because he was a propagandist for the party eventually led. He ran the English language internet platform, terribly written, hopelessly misspelled, you know, just trying to carry favor with the English speaking half of the population.

But however, Irriitating definitely had her family found Joseph mouscart Many voters liked him back then.

By then politics had become all about marketing. So it was all about the branding, you know, the changing of the color of the ties they wore, changing the party logo, giving people catchy slogans, making themselves look hip and cool, you know, making the governing party at the time the girl and stuffy.

He said that he's going to be Prime Minister for everybody. He promised everybody that this would be a multa for all, that the best is yet to come, you know, and he did deliver on some of those premises. He was very business friendly, and I would say quite a lot of people became rich overnight.

And so after twenty thirteen, any threat to the Joseph Mouscant government could potentially prove extremely expensive to many people. So flesh forward to a night in October twenty seventeen, Joseph Moscant and his government have been in power now for four years. Daphne's blog is at the height of its power and fame, leading the fight against corruption of

On this night, in the field in the countryside to the west of the Lessa, two men are silently practicing rehearsing, making preparations for a job.

One of them we've already met, Vincent de kov Moscat, one of the contract killers in the stolen Toyota back in Burkerkara. And next to him is another man who is also definitely known to the police, Chinese George's younger brother, Alfred Ilfulu, the Georgio Alfred, the Georgia Ilfulu. It means the bean, so Alfred, the bean de Georgio. Let's just say he's in the same line of business as his older and vincenta.

Kof It's a warm style this evening, trying to minimize noise. Vincent the cough and Alfred the Bean creep into their hiding place in the brush on the side of a hill, overlooking a wide, shallow valley. Out on the horizon, they can just make out the coast the Mediterranean and inky blackness, broken up by occasional lights from boats. But they aren't here to enjoy the scenery. They need to stay hidden at all times and leave no trace when they've gone.

Right now, Vincent Koff is purged on a couple of bricks, looking through the telescope, relaying what he is to Alfred de Bean Mushna. He's just noted that the target has left the room nearest them. The house they're watching is a traditional old matese farmhouse, the same elegant pale limestone as the buildings of Valletta, surrounded by high walls and lush, thickly planted gardens. Daphne's family home where she lives with her husband and two of her adult sons. It's a beautiful, peaceful spot.

The garden wall is one of the family's few concessions to security after years of threats and attacks due to Daphne's writing. But from their position up on the hill, the men can see down over the walls through the windows into the home itself.

Daphanie and her husband Peter have lived here for decades, raised their three sons here. As you'd expect in a small place like Bidnia, everyone locally knows where the Karwana Galizias live. Definitely sometimes writes her block posts from home, so she is often in the house and at certain times she walks past the farmhouse windows and into the telescopes view.

Say that first the fun on our computer.

Right now, they can see her sitting on a sofa. Daphaney has settled down to type on her laptop. She's relaxed, unaware.

Just on the side of Vincent Lecough there's a rifle with a telescopic sight. They tested it a few days ago in a field. It's only one of the weapons they've been supplied with for the job. They're saving their AK forty seven if they encounter any police roadblocks when making a getaway. But above all, the sniper shot needs accuracy to create a more stable shooting position. They've even filled pillowcases with soil to act as sandbags.

Jempilloo am.

Now Daphne is settled and visible. One of the men uses a burner phone to text Chinese George, the designated getaway driver. The message is simple, we are ready, she is in position. Get here now, because by now the group is under pressure to get this done. Those who hire them have said that if they don't act soon, something might get published that shouldn't get published. When Chinese George does arrive, the plan is that he will park close by, using a stolen vehicle as a getaway car,

Offer the being a steady sus grip on the row rifle and hugs the butt into his shoulder, preparing his body to absorb the recoil.

He alignes the bead and.

The crook to ensure he has the perfect aim right at Daphne working on her laptop. All they need now is the signal from Chinese George, but the getaway car is ready and waiting nearby.

When that message comes, all it will take will be a simple squeeze of the trigger that's next. At the time of recording, criminal proceedings are ongoing against some of the individuals accused of murdering definite Carvana Gazzia and other victims. We will fill you in more about where the case is as the serious progresses, but for now it s a fy sister say George, George, Joe and j Mivella, who you heard about earlier in the show, denied any