Maltese smuggler arrested in Libya in 2013 linked to Italian smugglers now facing extradition from Dominican Republic

Two Italian citizens, Massimo Perazza and Andrea D’Aloja, were arrested earlier this week in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean. They now face extradition to Italy.

They had been sought by the Italian police since last December, when six of their criminal associates were arrested in Italy in connection with the smuggling of diesel to Sicily in Libyan vessels.

A search on Google groups reveals that both men have limited circles which ‘Sunoil Malta’. Sunoil Management Co Ltd is a Maltese-registered company owned by Paul Piscopo and Albert Tabone.

In May 2013, Paul Piscopo’s Maltese-registered fishing boat, the Dimitra, was seized by the Maltese army and the five people on board (four Egyptians and one Maltese) arrested because a search revealed that it had been carrying “an excessive amount of fuel stored in precarious and hazardous conditions” (army statement to the press). It turned out that 8,000 of the 40,000 litres of diesel on board was being smuggled.

Two months earlier, in March, Piscopo’s son Matthew, who is a shareholder in a separate company called Mediterranean Samac Ltd, was arrested in Libya on charges of smuggling diesel from that country to Malta.

Matthew Piscopo was caught on an Egyptian vessel, the Fahd al Islam, along with another 13 men. He was the only Maltese on board. The vessel was carrying a cargo of 11,000 litres of smuggled diesel, which the Libyan forces confiscated. Piscopo was held in prison in Zawia while Malta’s Foreign Office gave him consular assistance.

Papers found on board the vessel made it clear that the smuggling was routine and that the Fahd al Islam had made three trips between Libya and Malta that month already, working for “a Maltese company”. Matthew Piscopo’s presence on board makes it reasonable to conclude that the Maltese company was Mediterranean Samac Ltd, Sunoil Management Co Ltd or Dimitra Fishing Co Ltd, in all of which he, his father or siblings are shareholders.

In October that year, lawyers from Parliamentary Secretary Jose Herrera’s law practice – Veronique Dalli and David Camilleri – filed a protest on behalf of their client, fuel smuggler Paul Piscopo, in his capacity as a director of Dimitra Fishing Company Ltd. The basis of Piscopo’s protest was that three other Maltese fuel-smugglers had been offered a deal by the Malta government under which they paid the Customs duty due, but he was not.

His son Matthew, who had been due to stand trial in Libya, was released by that country and returned to Malta by the end of 2013, under a mysterious arrangement not communicated to the press. There is no indication that he is being prosecuted in Malta. Meanwhile, another Maltese, Kevin McManus, who had been caught by the Libyans in a separate smuggling attempt at around the same time, remained in Libya to face charges.

In June last year, the Libyan prime minister Abdullah Al-Thinni called on the Maltese government to clamp down on Maltese fuel smugglers. He conveyed his message to the Maltese government in a meeting with Mannie Galea, the ambassador in Tripoli, telling him that the smuggling is increasing and that it has become “a threat to the Libyan state” which (I quote the Libyan Herald as the meeting was not reported in the Maltese press) “could impact not only on national security but on the close ties between the two countries. He accused smugglers of taking advantage of the present security crisis”.

As required by the norms of diplomacy, Malta’s Foreign Ministry responded in a meeting in Valletta with Libyan Chargé d’Affaires Huseen Benown, informing the Libyan government that “senior Maltese security personnel had met to investigate (the Libyan prime minister’s) allegations and take action”. Foreign Minister George Vella told the Libyan envoy that “Malta would cooperate with Libya to fight smuggling in all its forms” and that “information from Libya would result in ‘immediate action’ by the Maltese”. He also told the envoy that he would speak personally on the telephone to his counterpart, Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdulaziz, on the subject.

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