New hope for justice for the victims of the Sliema bumper key burglary gang has been raised after Europol on Friday listed the gang’s only female member as one of Europe’s 16 most wanted women.

Thirty-one-year-old Adilet Shakirgazieva, from Kyrgyzstan, had been indicted for her part in the 2014 and 2015 home robberies that had terrorised residents of Sliema and other localities.

Shakirgazieva was one of a five-strong group believed to have been behind a total of at least 28 thefts and attempted thefts from residences in Sliema, Pietà, Gzira, St Julian’s and St Paul’s Bay across 2014 and 2015. Many of the burglaries had taken place in Sliema.

She and four male accomplices – two Georgians, a Pole and a Lithuanian – were charged in the Maltese courts with having broken into homes and stolen jewellery and money. Shakirgazieva was arrested in September 2015 and taken to court, after which she was held in custody pending a hearing.

The gang had all pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit a crime, participating in organised crime, forming part of a criminal organisation and receiving stolen goods.

Upon her preliminary hearing, Shakirgazieva had been granted bail in May 2017. She failed to attend court in July 2017 and has not been seen since.

She is believed to have fled the country and is now being sought as one of the most dangerous and most wanted 16 women in Europe, according to Europol.

Shakirgazieva appears on Europol’s most wanted women list as part of the agency’s new Crime Has No Gender campaign.

She is listed as currently being on the run and Europol has taken to all social media platforms in its appeal to help it find the fugitive from Maltese justice.

The majority of apartments targeted were in Sliema and did not have alarm systems or CCTV cameras. The police said that the criminals used tools such as bump keys to break into the homes.

Bump keys are easily and cheaply procured online or are made with a blank key and simple tools that even children are able to bump a lock on their first try and a host of internet videos are out there to show people exactly how to make and use them.

It had been a discarded bus ticket which was the breakthrough that allowed police to identify and disrupt the Malta bump key crime gang.

The gang’s modus operandi was to rob two flats in the same block. On some occasions, the thieves would leave some stolen items on the stairs, although no explanation was given by inspectors for this behaviour.

The thieves had used the same modus operandi to commit all of the thefts. No signs of forced entry would be found. Cash, gold and jewellery would be stolen, while electronics would be left untouched. A strange signature of the gang’s burglaries would be the homeowner’s socks being found in places where they had not originally been left.

The breakthrough in the investigation came after a burglary from an apartment in Sliema, in which €9,000 worth of jewellery had been stolen. Investigating officers had found a bus ticket outside an apartment block that had been robbed. Checking with the bus operator, the police were informed that the ticket was purchased in Qawra at around 6.40pm for Route 12.

Working on a hunch that the thieves were using buses and were based in Qawra, police trawled through CCTV footage of bus stops in both Qawra and Sliema. Two persons were identified as the same individuals captured on the cameras near the scene of one of the crimes. Officers had subsequently boarded the bus after the men and arrested them as they alighted in St Paul’s Bay.

One of the men was found to have a tattoo giving his rank in a criminal organisation.

As for Shakirgazieva, she had wept in desperation as the court denied the group bail.

Europol said of its campaign launched on Friday that: “The criminals – of both genders – in this new campaign by EU law enforcement are all wanted for grave offences like murder, drug trafficking, fraud, theft and trafficking in human beings. We are asking for your information to help us track them down and make them take responsibility for their crimes.”

Altogether 21 EU member states have selected one of their most wanted fugitives to feature in this campaign. Shakirgazieva was Malta’s choice.

Europol’s focus is on the story behind the crime, starting with a full mask covering the face of the fugitive. As the story unfolds, parts of the mask disappear leaving the viewer guessing the gender of the criminal.

The aim is to attract as many visitors to eumostwanted website as possible.

“Experience has shown us that the more eyes look at the wanted fugitives, the higher the chance is that someone can place the final piece of the puzzle to locate and arrest the wanted person,” Europol said. “Information can be sent anonymously via the website, directly to the national investigators looking for the fugitive. 

“This approach has proven successful in the past three years. After every large communication campaign, several wanted fugitives were arrested or turned themselves in because the pressure became too high for them and/or their relatives.

“Since the launch of the project, 69 criminals who featured on the website have been arrested. In at least 21 cases this was down to information received from the general public via the website.”