He appeared to be involved in all sorts of deals with that other sleazebag Victor ‘Karettuni’ Spiteri and then Mid-Med Bank chairman Joe ‘10%’ Buttigieg (now resurrected as Heritage Malta chief, if you please).

Karettuni has also been exalted to some position or other.

If you just speak to the man for a few minutes and you ignore his sweet talk, you realise there is someting wrong with him.

http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2002/11/10/l4.html

January 2001

At the beginning of last year Spiteri had defended Ronnie Agius in a cigarette smuggling case, when the Maltese courts were reacting to court requests made by the Northern Ireland and Rotterdam courts.

The investigations are focused on the money laundering of millions of pounds from business coming from drug trafficking and smuggled cigarettes. Worse still, it is reported that the same Maltese, including Agius, were involved in the delivery of arms to the terrorist organisation, the IRA.

In Northern Ireland IRA bosses charge 30p on every packet of cigarettes illegally smuggled into the North. The tax levy is then siphoned off into Malta accounts. Individual operators make up to Sterling 10 clear profit on a carton of 200, even after paying their tax duty to the IRA

(…)

Ronnie Agius had been investigated for three years by police in Ireland, Belgium and Spain. He had been arrested in Belgium in August 1999 and released on a hefty pledge. His name appears continuously in investigations and documents sent from justice authorities to nearly every country in Europe. His name appears with those of Martin Daley, Paddy Hollywood and Kieran Smyth, all of whom are from Northern Ireland and linked closely to the IRA.

Incidentally during the summer of 2000, Agius had also been observed greeting Mafia boss Gerardo Cuomo, the ‘king’ of cigarette smuggling in Europe, when these met outside Hotel La Paix in Lugano, Italy.

http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2002/11/03/l4.html