Why has Alex Vella spent years making frequent trips to Malta, when he and his entire family have been in Australia since 1967?

Published: June 19, 2014 at 1:43am

The Malta Security Services should have been tracking him (well, on alert from the Australian Crime Commission, they probably have been). Turns out that in Australia he’s suspected of being a major drug dealer, and that his millions have come from that crime.

Read this (link below):

There were about 60 officers from every imaginable law enforcement outfit, State and Federal – police from the regional crime squad, the State Crime Commission, the National Crime Authority, the Customs. Even the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service arrived to bundle his pet kangaroo into a sack.

They came in a column of cars, buses, pantechnicons and a mobile crane, and soon the sound of Alex Vella’s house being stripped to the boards could be heard far and wide across the landscape of market gardens, dairy herds, and the pillars, palm trees and three-car garages of ostentatious new housing estates.

At the end of that long day, the lawmen drove away with goods and paperwork to property they valued at $3 million, one of the richest hauls in Australian law enforcement history. They say it is the ill-gotten gains of crime and they intend to keep it. Vella says he acquired his fortune through hard work and smart investment and he’s fighting to get it back.




17 Comments Comment

  1. H.P. Baxxter says:

    Malta, exporting pimps, thieves and scoundrels since 7000 B.C.

    • ciccio says:

      Must be why exports have dropped under the new Labour government. They are preferring to stay in Malta.

      Actually, we are now importing them, by selling them Maltese passports:

      Malta, importing pimps, thieves and scoundrels since 2013.

    • Kevin says:

      You better copyright that. Joe Grima might start using that at the World Tourism Organisation to promote our national culture. He’s already using the racism and xenophobia card.

  2. Matthew S says:

    Your recent coverage of obese police officers reminded me of this story from a couple of years ago.

    And this is Pakistan not some ultra-modern European country with extremely high standards.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/9338870/Pot-bellied-Pakistani-policemen-told-to-slim-down.html

  3. I suspect it could also be for tax reasons.

  4. Gahan says:

    http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-06-18/news/porn-star-missing-since-february-found-dismembered-in-suitcase-at-bottom-of-lake-5525569537/

    “…the body was wrapped in cellophane and duck tape.”

    I spilled my Earl Grey on my keyboard.

    [Daphne – You’d be surprised how often it’s referred to as duck tape, because the ‘t’ in duct is swallowed up by the ‘t’ in tape when speaking, and most people never see the word written down. So much so, that it has moved into the language: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duct_tape and there are even novelty tapes which use the name: http://www.duckbrand.com/products/duck-tape But like you, I always think it’s so funny, because I have always lived in an environment where the men routinely did/do electrical odd jobs around the house and there was always duct tape in the workroom which I could filch for crafts. And it was always called by its proper name.]

  5. Mandy says:

    There’s more:

    “Mr Vella served 18 months of periodic detention for marijuana possession in the mid-1990s, and has been raided by the NSW Crime Commission and National Crime Commission, which seized and froze $3million worth of assets, including 44 Harley Davidsons, two Rolls-Royces, four Corvettes, a Mercedes and a Bentley.” http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Alex-Vella/690520649

  6. Mandy says:

    The substantial amount of money he paid was to the Crime Commission, for his assets to be released. In the interview he gave to The Times of Malta yesterday, he claims to have paid a hefty tax fine – which is misleading, unless he was referring to something else.

    “The assets were later returned to Mr Vella after he paid a $650,000 settlement to the NSW Crime Commission.” http://www.news.com.au/national/family-fears-for-bikie-leader-stuck-in-visa-row/story-e6frfkp9-1111113205409

  7. golly says:

    Wouldn’t it be interesting to find out which lawyer represents/ed him in Malta?

  8. Observer says:

    Well, now he can become a taxi driver in Malta. Will fit right in and pick up where he left off in Australia.

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