The Maltese company that would have served as a broker to sell 100,000 assault rifles and 10 million rounds of ammunition to unknown Iraqi recipients is owned by two Italians in detention and facing charges in Perugia, Italy – and not just one of those arrested as reported by the international media.

Research carried out by The Malta Independent on Sunday has revealed that the company, Pieta-based MIR Ltd, is in fact owned by the Italian Massimo Bettinotti, suspected to have been the mastermind behind the failed multi-million euro deal, and by an accomplice also under arrest in Italy, Ermete Moretti. Mr Moretti also serves as the company’s secretary. Both men are the sole directors and shareholders of the company.

Although the story made the international limelight last week when court documents were filed by anti-mafia investigators in the courts of Perugia and the arrests had been made, The Malta Independent had reported the involvement of the Maltese company back in February.

At the time the Maltese police had not received any requests for assistance from the Italian authorities, nor had they received any information in connection with the Italian investigation, while it appears no other requests have surfaced in the meantime. Investigations carried out by the Maltese police in February had found that no Maltese nationals had been involved in the plot.

Letters rogatory – a request for cooperation from the courts of one country to another for judicial assistance of some sort – could be expected from the Italian courts as the case gets underway in earnest.

Other Italians arrested who may have had ties with Malta are Gianluca Squarzolo and Serafino Rossi, while a fifth individual, a certain Vittorio Dordi, is currently on the run from the long arm of the Italian law and is thought to be in hiding in the Congo.

The case had unfolded in February when Italian police were covertly looking for drugs in a suspect traveller’s checked luggage as part of investigations into a drug trafficking ring, but were instead surprised by their discovery of a weapons catalogue, bullet proof vests and helmets. The suspect had been travelling from Rome to Libya.

An investigation had ensued, which led to the discovery of planned covert arms sales to Libya through the Maltese company, as well as a deal struck for the shipment of 100,000 assault rifles to Iraq.

The deal was to have been enacted through an intermediary in Dubai, which had approached MIR Ltd for the procurement of night visors from Mr Bettinotti and was told MIR could also procure weapons. The Dubai intermediary, al-Handal General Trading Co., had previously been implicated by American investigators in Iraq’s food-for-oil scandal.