The Maltese police yesterday said the Maltese company implicated in a large-scale investigation, code-named “Parabellum”, into the trafficking of weapons, was run by an Italian individual who has been arrested in Italy.
On Monday, the Italian authorities announced they had interrupted an international arms trafficking deal that was to have operated between China, Malta and Libya, and which planned to supply hundreds of thousands of weapons and millions of rounds of ammunition to Iraqi insurgents.
CNN yesterday reported that the Italian authorities believe the weapons were to have been shipped to Malta before being sent on to their final destination.
The Maltese police yesterday said they have so far not received any requests for assistance from the Italian authorities, nor have they received any information in connection with the Italian investigation.
Investigations carried out by the Maltese police have found that no Maltese nationals were involved in the plot, but rather an Italian with a company registered in Malta, which company is not active at the moment, the police said. The company in question, according to a statement issued by the police yesterday evening, has a number of offices spread across the world. The police added that investigations into the case are in hand.
The planned arms deal was to have seen the unnamed Maltese company acting as a middleman, for a “notable profit”, between Chinese weapons producers and Libyan buyers, who would, in turn, move the weapons on to Iraqi insurgents, according to coded emails recovered by Italian agents.
In the process of their investigations, which had been carried out over the first months of 2006, the Italian authorities discovered a commission of 500,000 AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifles and some 10 million rounds of ammunition that was to have been illegally shipped to Libya and on to Iraq.
The company, according to the Carabinieri, had in fact already sent samples of arms and munitions to the Libyan purchasers.
No weapons are reported to have been confiscated during the enquiry and it is thought the main consignment was still pending when interrupted.