A note to listeners, this episode contains a reference to suicide.
The escalation in the number of criminals being murdered by each other gives us some idea of the surge and growth of the underworld. An underworld of this nature, which is now moved into contract killings and the elimination of rivals, will definitely have a network in the country's power structures, because the two go together.
Early twenty eighteen, a few months after Dafnese murder, the assassins Vincent de kof Moscat, Chinese George de Georgio and Alfred de Bin de Georgio are in Malta's Cordine prison awaiting trial. So far, none of them are talking. It's an investigative dead end. Mister Alleged Mastermind, the powerful, wealthy
individual who allegedly ordered Daphnese murder, still seems invulnerable. He is not even considered a suspect, and it appears that, thanks to Alleged Mastermind's close friendships with corrupt police officers and senior politicians, every detail of the police investigation is
known to him. He seems invincible. That leaves this guy, our middleman, Melvin Toma, the taxi driver, Dodgy Bucky and occasional long Shark, who recruited the assassins, oversaw the murder and reports back to mister alleged Mastermind.
Melvin the Middleman is the only member of this criminal enterprise who knows mister Alleged Mastermind's true identity, the only person who can connect mister Alleged Mastermind to Japanese murder, and Melvin the Middleman is still free, at least from the authorities, but he's far from free from the rest of the gang, and his obligations are only increasing. From iHeart podcast topic studios in Vespucci, I'm.
John Sweeney and I'm Manuel Delia and.
This is Crooks Everywhere, Episode six, Carbon Culture. On this morning, Melvin the Middleman is paying one of his regular visits to a modest home in Marsa, the hometown of the killers. These visits may not look like much, but they are a window into this world, a world where the assassination of a journalist, where Daphne's cold blooded murder is possible, and in its way, this visit will be a masterclass in power and how to exert it.
So on this day, Melvin de Middleman is paying a family visit, but it's far from friendly. The following is a dramatization based on Melvin de Middlemanto Ma's court testimony. It streamlines multiple events that took place during this period. The man who answers the door hurries him inside. Melvin the Middleman mustn't be seen in front of the house for long. Melvin reassures him, Hat, Marani, no one is
watching me. He's wrong about that. As it happens, the man whose house this is is Mario de Georgio, the older brother of two of the killers, Chinese George de Georgio and Alfred de Bin de Georgio. Mario de Georgio is in his early sixties, wears glasses and looks like an ordinary pensioner, But like the whole family, he's not someone you want to upset.
The oldest to Giorgio brother has been officially registered as out of work for the last fourteen years, and he seems to be living comfortably. Melvin the Middleman says that he sees gold chains and a diamond studied rolex during his visits. Because Daphne's actual killers are locked up, Melvin alleges that Mario has been designated as the killer's official representative and spokesman on the outside. It's what Daphne would
call a moral faminalism in action. Greed, power and criminality channels through family ties and family loyalty, in this case, family ties that allow the killers to reach through the prison walls and continue shaping events in the outside world.
Even if the older the Georgia brother, Mario does not have the same criminal history as his two younger brothers, he is now their eyes and ears, managing some of their sensitive business arrangements, like this visit from Melvin, the middleman. Whatever happens this house called must remain completely see. Mario de Georgia asks Melvin if he has the afaid things and Monty they agreed upon deliveries. Melvin nods and begins pulling out parcels from his bag, placing them on the table.
The food comes first, parcels of rabbit, traditional Maltese cheeses and delicious to revise steaks Chinese. George and Alfred de Bean may be behind bars on murder charges, but that's no reason for them to eat bland prison food like ordinary criminals, and Melvin doesn't just need to provide the prison picnics. He's expected personally to foot the bill for this too.
If Melvin the Middleman finds all this humiliating, the switch from hiring Japanese killers to acting as their butler, he doesn't show it.
But steaks and rabbit are and the only thing Melvin the Middleman has been asked to bring on this visit. Mario asks if he has the other stuff. Melvin jumps to and passes over the first bulging anth. It's backed with big denomination banknotes, the euro equivalent of thousands of dollars. Maria de Georgia Counct one two, three thousand. That's all there.
Japanese Killers have let it be known that while they're behind bars, they also expect certain other things to be taken care of. All three of them are family men with partners and children, so weekly donation has been requested to pay for family expenses, everything from private school fees to health insurance, all on top of the original fee
they were paid for the murder. This regular donation has got steadily larger as the weeks have gone by, and once again this is all coming out of Melvin the Middleman's own pocket.
Now, the second envelope of banknotes is handed over, this one even larger. This is to cover some of the murderer's legal fees tens of thousands of dollars. The kind of lawyers they want don't come cheap. According to Melvin the middleman alleged master mindset he would be paying for this, and should also be funding all the expenses involved with keeping the assassins happy behind bars, But in fact he's
come up short. So Melvin is reaching into his own pocket again to make up the difference, and that keeps happening.
So jibobawaya.
Here's the reason that Melvin finds himself personally bankrolling so many of the assassin's expenses. The reason he finds himself funding a murder plot that wasn't his idea and that he doesn't benefit from. He simply can't say no. Melvin the Middleman knows that at any point, any one of the three killers behind bars could begin talking to the authorities. So Melvin the Middleman's own freedom depends on their continued silence.
So each week and each month, as the demands for cash and gifts grow greater and greater, Melvin the Middleman hands over more and more banknotes to Mario de Georgio. Much later in court, Melvin the Middleman will describe himself as feeling blackmailed and having his back to the wall
when faced with these demands from the Georgios. But however he feels for now he keeps paying, and around this time it almost seems as though the Georgia clan is actively enjoying testing how far they can push Melvin's generosity. The fluffy dog that Mario de Georgia now keeps as a pet, the one sniffing at the coffee table, that was another unwilling gift from Melvin. It's not just any pet.
The Georgia wanted a designer pedigree dog imported all the way from China, one that costs nearly six thousand dollars online. Melvin the Middleman paid up again at any greed time. During the visit, Mario de Georgio gets a phone call from inside Corde Prison. It's the younger of the Georgia brothers, Alfred, being the Georgia. He wants to know that everything is
running according to plan. Mario de Georgia confirms that Melvin the Middleman has brought what he supposedly owes for this week, including their bi steaks and the cheese, and from inside cordeen prison, the two brothers tell Mario that they have a special message to pass on to Melvin the middle Man. Melvin something for him to hear and bear in mind
at all times. Okay, the oldest the Georgia brother listens and then looks his visitor dead in the eye and repeats word for word the messages on the inside, not those on the outside.
Mario Georgia will later be charged with blackmail and money in connection with the Tessamiley about these events by Melvin the Middleman, married to Georgio, who's pleaded not guilty, and the proceedings are still continuing.
So it appears that Melvin the Middleman is caught in a delicate web connected to both mister alleged Mastermind on one side, and did the Georgios and Vincent the Cough on the other, and it's pretty fragile. His predicament is in many ways a product of Malta's unique gang culture, a culture of impunity and power and money, the same
culture that killed Daphne. In fact, the very method use to murder her is virtually a hallmark of our homegrown mafia, which brings us to the next piece of the puzzle, the carbonb.
So Manuel, where are we?
This is in Sea Duck Creek, which is a very busy junction connecting the center to the north of the island.
And what happened here.
Well a few years back, just across the street early in the morning, in rush hour traffic, a car blew up. So let me read you this. This is from Malta today, twentyeth February twenty seventeen, forty year old man from Floriana has been critically injured after a car exploded in McDuck close to the Workers Monument. That's the thing behind me here. The victim, who has lost both legs in the explosion
has been identified as Romeo Bone. Only last year, Bone was cleared of participating into two thousand and seven Port Tomas or jewelry heist. Listen to this. The explosion took place at around ten thirty am, causing traffic creos in the area. The witnesses said that Bone was dragged away from the car by passers by, who also reported that he was conscious and was able to identify himself.
And was anybody arrested tried convicted for this car bombing.
This was one of a long series of car bombs, and over none of those car bombs was there ever any arrest, never mind charges or prosecution or any of that. No one was ever arrested for these. There's also this spectacular factor, right, this is a ball of fire in the middle of the road. Is someone being pulled out without their legs from that car? And this is where
a bit of reaction starts. The public starts expecting the police to act on this because the police are not making any arrest, they're not getting anywhere.
So the gangsters who were blowing people up, what was there to take away from this When nobody's arrested, nobody's prosecuted, uncertainly, nobody's convicted.
I think the most important messages that they could get away with it that this was fine, that this method would work. In fact, when you study the series of car bombings that preceded Daphne's more some patterns emerge. First the sheer frequency.
There was one in January six, twenty sixteen, another in September twenty sixteen. You know, there was one in October twenty sixteen. January twenty seventeen, February twenty seventeen.
You know, Julian Bonici is a former Maltese journalist who has tried to catalog these killings.
These are five car bombs within the space of a year and nothing was done about it. Five bombs and a yeah should be a major red flag.
There had been nineteen bomb attacks, many of them car bombs, in the seven years leading up to Dafnese murder in a country the size of Malta with a population of only half a million people. That's an incredible statistic. And the second pattern that emerged is the similarity in the carbon devices, suggesting an organized infrastructure a production line behind each attack. Dafnee bomb appears to have come from this
production line. Take the killing of John Camillary, blown up around the year before Deafnie.
He was meted by carbon in Saint Paul's Bay. The car bomb was particularly powerful, you know, during the day, it was a really shocking scene.
News footage shows a white car turned almost inside out by the blast, the roof peeled back and blackened, all in the middle of a normal residential street.
And the bomb, much like very similar other cases, was placed on the Camilliary seat and was detonated by mobile. But what's very interesting about this murder is Camilary was also chasing Georgia Georgia for some money at the time, for over fifty two thousand euros.
Yes, Chinese George de Georgio, one of Dafnie's assassins, and allegedly the man who drove the car in the drive by murder of the lawyer carmelker Kopp that we heard about in episode one. It's probably a good moment to emphasize that no one has been convicted for the Camillary killing or any of the other car bombs other than Daphny's. So in the majority of these murders we don't know
officially or otherwise who carried them out. But as is becoming increasingly clear, there are many more people involved than just those who pull the trigger or in this case, detonate the bomb. There is a wider organized infrastructure and the same names start to come up. If we ask who supplied all the materials for the bomb that killed Daphnie,
another connection with previous bombings seems to emerge. According to later testimony by Vincent, the kof those materials were supplied by a criminal gang led by two notorious brothers, Adrian and Robert Tajus. Their organization's street name is Talmaksar. No translation of this phrase works.
Vincent macaff was telling people that Talmukshah had worked closely with the Di Giorgios and him for years. He later estimated that at one point Seal Makshah were handing over the equivalent of twenty one thousand dollars per month through the Georgios for quotes work end quotes. The two criminal gangs appeared to have cooperated closely on other things too. In the Carmel Kirkopp drive by murder, the shooter was allegedly Jamie Vella, an alleged associate of tal Muxar doctor
kirk Coopp. The victim was owed money by one of the tal Muxar brothers, and according to Vincent the Cough, Jamie Veller and Robert Adjus were also closely involved in the logistics of Daphne's murder too. Remember, the first plan was to kill Daphne by shooting her through the window of her home. Tal Maxa's Robert Adeus was alleged to have supplied the rifles.
When that plan was abandoned. And the decision was made to switch to a car bomb. The police believe Jamievella picked up the bomb in Sicily and brought it to Malta on the ferry, an import service of a kind. Vincent Dakoff was a unsurprised. He said that Al Maksarman were known to have many Italian friends and not too
subtle reference to connections with the mafia. And there are also striking similarities between the bomb that killed Daphne and the device that donated in rush hour traffic at mcd creek. The bomb that amputated Romeo Bone's legs also triggered by cell phone.
What's very interesting about this med is that the court sittings have revealed, you know, a potential link, you know, between this explosion of Romeo Bone, Vince and Vince Musca, George Georgia and Alfred de Georgia, or the three men charged with murdering Dafnieasa.
According to Vincent Lakoff's testimony, Japhanes's gillers were so conscious of the fact that mister Bone had survived that they discussed whether it was wise to use a similar device to kill Daphne. They put these professional concerns to Tom Maxar's Robert Aurjeus as the bomb supplier, and they got an intriguing and detailed answer. The Romeo bone bomb had failed to kill its target, they were told, because it had been placed under the car's key lock, not under
the seat, and so the blast had been misdirected. The kind of detailed information that you would need to be close to the perpetrators to know, it might seem.
Once again, no one has ever been convicted of any of these crimes other than Daphanie's murder.
Roberts Us and Jamie Veller are currently awaiting trial for complicity in Daphanese's murder as well as the Carmel Kirkop killing, alongside other charges. Edrin ADUs is a waiting trial for involvement in the Carmel Kirk coop killing, but is not charged with involvement in Daphane's murder. They all deny the charges.
October twelfth, twenty fourteen. Some background on crime gang Adrian Adjus.
Daphne did not write much on street crime in Malta, but she did write one post about Adrian Adjus.
It was a characteristically fearless post and it mentioned another business associate of mister Ajus, who had disappeared suddenly.
Adrian Addus's friend and close associate, the drug dealer Terence janen Say, vanished in November twenty twelve after telling his family that he was going fishing. His car was found parked and locked, and his yacht was still at its usual mooring. None of his bank accounts have been touched since he has presumed dead. He was twenty four when he vanished.
It's important to note that Daphni never directly accused Adrian Ajus of the murder, and he was never convicted. Surprisingly, it's possible that we know exactly what Adrian Ajews thought about this blog post. Under the post, one of Daphne's fans had written anonymously praising her for covering this topic and raising further questions about mister Ajus's family criminal history. Mister A Juice appears to have responded to this fan.
Someone posting and Adrianajus's name wrote, I know you don't have the balls, but if you find them somewhere in your wife's pocket, let's meet up and we sort things out.
You are just a low life afraid to show your face. Unsolved murders in themselves are a little bit part of multi sculpture.
I'd hate to say it.
You know, we've had some really high profile killings in the country, murders that just sort of went code. A sort of question that always needed in my mind is why these, particularly Mathia style murders never got solved.
Take the car bombings for example. The space of these bombings in the years leading up to Japanese's death was so pronounced, but it provided the impetus for the police to purchase a special computed database to collate and store evidence of these killings going years. So when Daphne was murdered, that should have been the starting point for police to tease out these very patents and connections from previous crimes. But when the officer leading the investigation into Daphne's death
opened the database, he found almost nothing. Later he described this as bare, almost unused, and the crimes remained unsolved.
And that brings us to one of Daphnie's great themes, Malta's culture of corruption.
It's impossible and mold not to have connections. You know, your minister, your police officer is not twenty kilometers away, he's down the road. You know, you can't bump into him at the supermarket, he said, you know, so, yeah, what I did it created this. I think it just adds to the climate and the culture of empiathetics and the more the.
Same impunity that fueled both the high level misdeeds exposed in Dafnes's blog and our epidemic of car bombings and contract killings.
Criminals are confident in Morta, all the hitmen they did it because they thought they could get away with it. I think they were probably sure they could get away with it. I mean major crime in mals are at least for me. I mean, this is my perspective, and I think the fact and figures would back me up. Is that goes ignored, you know, whether it's a question of resources in the police department, whether it's a question
of you know, corruption, bribery and what it does. Obviously it creates a climate where these things can happen.
Indeed, these things can happen. So for all these reasons, when Melvin the Middleman is paying visits to Mario de Giorgio and Marsa and making his regular donations of food, cash and gifts, he is every good reason to fear those on the inside. But Melvin the Middleman is also reaching breaking point. He's beginning to realize that he is far out of his depth with this crime and its aftermath.
Soon after the arrest of the de Georgios and Vincent de Kov, Melvin the Middleman takes out a will for the first time, he begins drinking heavily and taking tranquilizers. Later, he will testify that his relationship with his boss, mister Alleged Mastermind, also changes. Although the two of them have known and trusted each other for decades, for the first time, Melvin the Middleman begins to fear his old friend and godfather, fear him almost as much as he fears the de Georgios.
As ever, Melvin the Middleman is aware that he is the only man who knows Alleged Mastermind's role in Dafne's murder, and so if he Melvin were to disappear Suddenly, he realizes it might of an important problem for mister Alleged Mastermind.
For all their years of friendship, nothing can change that fact, And increasingly Melvin the Middleman sees that what happened to people like Romeo Bone, Carmelker Cobb, John Camilly and Tiffany herself could happen to him, and if it did happen, he also knows there is little chance mister alleged Mastermind would ever be caught.
At times, Melvin contemplates turning himself into the police, even driving to a police station, before turning back at the last minute, fearing the power and influence of mister alleged Mastermind.
And as time goes on, Melvin's drinking and self control keep getting worse. At one point, he turns up at Alleged Mastermind's office in front of important international businessmen, wanting reassurance. As the police investigation develops and the international pressure on Malta is so off, Daphne's murder grows, mister Eliged master Mind continues to try to calm Melvin the Middleman down. He reminds him of the political connections that are in
their favor. He texts him not to panic, to stay strong. They both know that if Melvin cracks under the pressure, he might bring them both down, and so the measures mister religid master Mind takes to keep Melvin the Middleman on side become more extravagant. At one point he even pays for Melvin and his family to have a beach holiday at his expense to reduce their stress levels. But Melvin, perhaps wisely, is not reassured. He senses the risk of
betrayal ever more strongly. Years later, in court, Melvin the Middleman described how Daphne's fate, the murder he had organized as a favor, now felt like a warning for his own future. I thought it was my turn now, he said. One evening, mister alleged Mastermind tries to cheer Melvin up with a gift of some meat and wine to take home, but Melvin doesn't dare touch it. Jason Atterpietly asked him about this in court. He believed it was poisoned and he threw it away.
He said in court that too much, I was afraid for my life, and.
The pressure from mister alleged Mastermind, from quotes those inside, and from the police investigation continues to build. One night, he becomes too much. He drinks whiskey and takes pills, and then he climbs up onto the roof of his house, having decided to end it all, And at the top he waits, but something stops him.
He later said that at that moment in his mind, he imagined mister Leig, mastermind, with his legs crossed, smoking a cigar to celebrate getting away with everything, and the idea of that made him decide instead to fight for his survival, and.
He realizes there is one way he can begin to protect himself by using the secrets he's carrying to his own advantage a weapon to defend himself. One thing that those responsible for Daphne's murder haven't considered.
And there's something else they didn't reckon on Daphne's family and their own determination to bring her killers to justice whatever the cost.
We were turning up with speaking points about the corruption crisis, and in doing so, we were in a way dehumanizing our own mother. We were turning her into a case, and we were turning ourselves into campaigners rather than grieving songs.
That's next time.
Crooks Everywhere is a production of iHeart Podcasts, Topic Studios and Vespucci. It's reported and hosted by me Manuel Delia and John Sweeney. The senior producer is Leo Hornack. The producer is Maddi Hickish. Chris Denesh Kumar is the assistant producer. The story editors are Emma Federill, Matt Willis and Philippa Geering. The managing producers are Thomas Curry and Rachel Byrne.
The voice of.
Dafnie Carvana Galizia is played by Ciena Miller, acting direction by Christopher Houten, Multie voices by Mikhail basma Jan and Pierre staff Rach. The executive producers are Johnny Galvin and Daniel Turken at Vespucci, Christi Gressman at Topic Studios, Katina Norvell, and Nicki Etoor at iHeart Podcasts. Ancienna Miller marketing leader is David Wasserman. Audio recording by Tom Berry at Wardoor Studios.
Audio mix and sound design by Joel Cox. Special thanks to Andrew Watchcardona, Alessandra di Crespo, Eddie Isles, and Andrew Carvana Galicia