Speaker 1: There are crooks everywhere you look. Now the situation is desperate.
Speaker 2: Eighth of October twenty fifteen, just before seven am a
Speaker 2: sleepy Thursday morning, in the town of Birgerkara, in the
Speaker 2: center of Motawn, tightly wound medieval streets, beautiful, pale yellow
Speaker 2: limestone churches, all just beginning to catch the first rays
Speaker 2: of the early morning Mediterranean sun. Inside the houses and
Speaker 2: apartments here, most people are still asleep or just waking up.
Speaker 3: But here, on the top floor of an early empty
Speaker 3: multi story garage on john Board Street, three men are
Speaker 3: wide awake, crashing the seats of a stolen Toyota Parks
Speaker 3: so they can watch the road down below.
Speaker 4: They wait.
Speaker 3: In this episode, we've taken evidence heard in the courtroom
Speaker 3: and reconstructed what happened according to that testimony. We've dramatized
Speaker 3: the evidence and provided color in places without changing any
Speaker 3: of the material facts or allegations.
Speaker 5: Okay, JJ dot lest.
Speaker 2: In the driving seat is George de Georgia, around fifty
Speaker 2: two years old, thinning hair, a little overweight, but an
Speaker 2: intimidating presence. He's officially long term unemployed, but also able
Speaker 2: somehow to support a remarkably luxurious lifestyle, luxury cars, including
Speaker 2: a white Corvette, and his own fishing yacht. George is
Speaker 2: well known to the police in his line of work.
Speaker 2: Most people know him by his Multese street name of Itchinese,
Speaker 2: the Chinese one. In the way of these names, the
Speaker 2: origin is mysterious. Chinese George de Georgia is not from
Speaker 2: an Asian family. He's one hundred percent Maltese and right now,
Speaker 2: like the others in this toyota, he's kied up waiting
Speaker 2: for the job to.
Speaker 3: Begin in the back seats, watching the streets. The two men, allegedly.
Speaker 2: One of them is Vincent il Kochu Mouscat. His Maltese
Speaker 2: nickname translates roughly to the sound made by someone coughing.
Speaker 2: This recreation is based on his courtroom testimony about that morning.
Speaker 4: And after him then a list.
Speaker 2: Like Chinese George, Vincent the Coff is middle aged with
Speaker 2: decades of work behind him. He too has a reputation
Speaker 2: with the police, and allegedly, alongside Vincent the Cuff in
Speaker 2: the car is the final member of the team. Jamie Vella,
Speaker 2: in his early thirties, the youngest of the three, also
Speaker 2: known to the police. He's seen as knowledgeable about firearms.
Speaker 2: By the other two. There's an AK forty seven, a
Speaker 2: Russian the designed submachine gun, resting under deceit near him.
Speaker 2: Jamie also allegedly has with him a revolver, his main weapon.
Speaker 2: This morning, and on.
Speaker 3: This October morning, in twenty fifteen, in this busy channel
Speaker 3: in Malta, these men in the car are a team,
Speaker 3: even if you like a family.
Speaker 2: For now, and there is another thing that unites these
Speaker 2: three their shared and bloody future, the reason we're telling
Speaker 2: you this story. At least two of these men will
Speaker 2: one day be the foot soldiers and the murder of
Speaker 2: my country's most famous journalist, the assassination of a beloved wife, mother,
Speaker 2: daughter and sister, and for me and many Maltese people
Speaker 2: also an inspiration. The journalist's name is Deafnely Karwana Galitzia,
Speaker 2: not Jane.
Speaker 4: Shane.
Speaker 3: But on this day in twenty fifteen, as these men
Speaker 3: sit impatiently in a stolen car in an empty multi
Speaker 3: story garage that is still a long way off, on
Speaker 3: this morning, we will later be told in court they
Speaker 3: are all still waiting for just one thing, the signal
Speaker 3: to start their work. And then Vincent Lecough spots something.
Speaker 2: Maltese for heads up. I can see him. He's coming
Speaker 2: up the street. Some way off. A man in a
Speaker 2: business suit is approaching, walking towards the entrance to the
Speaker 2: garage Chinese George. George drives down through the almost deserted garage,
Speaker 2: heading to street level. They don't have long They need
Speaker 2: to be at the entrance before this man reaches the building.
Speaker 3: As George drives, Jimmy and Vincent allegedly pull on Balaclava's
Speaker 3: it's good to look the part. They pull over to
Speaker 3: a space on the ground floor with a view of
Speaker 3: the entrance onto the street. It won't be long now.
Speaker 2: Along the walls of each floor are dozens of small,
Speaker 2: lockablelee garages. You can rent one out for a small fee.
Speaker 2: It's more private and secure than parking on the street,
Speaker 2: but that also means that if you use one of
Speaker 2: these garages regularly the same time every day, people can
Speaker 2: guess where to find you.
Speaker 3: The street entrance opens, and the man in the suit
Speaker 3: walks calmly in a leather bag in one hand, patting
Speaker 3: his pockets with the other hand to find his keys.
Speaker 2: Oblivious, the Toyota edges forward twenty meters away in the
Speaker 2: back seat, Jamie allegedly lowers the window and takes the
Speaker 2: safety off the revolver ten meters five meters.
Speaker 3: The man in the suit has his keys out now
Speaker 3: and he's standing just in front of Garage number forty six,
Speaker 3: close to the entrance. As he puts the key in
Speaker 3: the lock, he turns his back to the Toyota for
Speaker 3: a moment, pulling the shutter open with his.
Speaker 2: Weight, and that's when the car passes right next to him,
Speaker 2: close enough to the chiut untouched. The shots are a
Speaker 2: most point blank, a whole clip.
Speaker 3: It's clear there's no need for a second pass. According
Speaker 3: to Vincent Lakoff, Chinese George drives straight through the exit
Speaker 3: into the back streets of Berkha Kara. They've rehearsed the
Speaker 3: route to the safe house. Jamie in the back seat
Speaker 3: stashes his weapon from here. It's just routine, planned for
Speaker 3: the last it's what they do.
Speaker 2: The man in the suit's name is carmelker Kopp, a lawyer,
Speaker 2: married thirty five years, in business with some dangerous people.
Speaker 2: As is normal for this kind of crime in Malta,
Speaker 2: no one will be convicted for his murder. As is
Speaker 2: normal for this kind of crime in Malta, no one
Speaker 2: will even be arrested. For years.
Speaker 3: No one is chasing these men now through Berkhakara, and
Speaker 3: no one will. These men are free to kill again
Speaker 3: and again until one day, two years later, when they
Speaker 3: make the mistake of taking out Malta's most famous journalist.
Speaker 2: This is the story of how my home, a smaller
Speaker 2: European democracy, a picture postcard tourist destination, came to be
Speaker 2: a place where the criminals set the rules, where crime
Speaker 2: and politics merge, a place where some people can literally
Speaker 2: get away with murder. This is a story you might
Speaker 2: have heard part of before, but it's only now, in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, that we are coming close to the
Speaker 2: full truth. From iHeart Podcasts, Topic Studios and Vespucci, this
Speaker 2: is Crooks Everywhere, Episode one, Drive by in Birkerkara. My
Speaker 2: name is Manuel Delilla. I'm a former multist political operative
Speaker 2: and government official, and I was inspired to become a
Speaker 2: journalist by this story we will be telling in this podcast,
Speaker 2: the brutal murder of deaf Nie Carwana Galicia in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2: Ever since her death, I've been one of the people
Speaker 2: trying to discover not just who killed her, but who
Speaker 2: ordered her killing and why and how they are connected
Speaker 2: to some of the most powerful people in the country.
Speaker 2: It's an incredible and terrifying story. This might sound grand,
Speaker 2: but for me, whether we find justice for Dephni is
Speaker 2: about the future of this whole nation, about the kind
Speaker 2: of country my children will be living in. But to
Speaker 2: tell this story, I knew I needed someone with the
Speaker 2: experience to take on difficult and even dangerous stories. And
Speaker 2: that's why I called up my friend and mentor, mister
Speaker 2: John Sweeney.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much, sir.
Speaker 2: Six years ago I didn't know John except from the TV,
Speaker 2: but now he's an old friend. He's a former BBC
Speaker 2: man and if you ask me, one of the best
Speaker 2: investigative and war reporters in the world. And probably if
Speaker 2: you ask him.
Speaker 3: To oh, leave it out, galv I'm only here to
Speaker 3: make trouble for the wrong kind of people.
Speaker 2: John stuck up inconvenient truths on subjects as varied as scientology,
Speaker 2: North Korea and the life of Gillame Maxwell. And for
Speaker 2: years he's chronicled the corruption and crimes of Vladimir pu
Speaker 2: sometimes on the front lines of Ukraine.
Speaker 3: When a journalist is murdered. It's not just a tragedy
Speaker 3: for a family. It's an attempt to shut down what
Speaker 3: we all do. Journalism is about trying to tell truth
Speaker 3: about the world, to keep power and money in check,
Speaker 3: to give a voice to the voiceless. The moment I
Speaker 3: arrived in Malta after Daphne's murder, I sense this wasn't
Speaker 3: just the snuffing out of one extraordinary woman. Someone was
Speaker 3: trying to silence a whole country, to prevent it from
Speaker 3: asking the wrong kind of questions. And for me, this
Speaker 3: is a story that has lessons for every country where
Speaker 3: power and money use crime to settle scores. I see
Speaker 3: this story played out in varying degrees across the world,
Speaker 3: in Russia, in America, in Britain. And that's why this
Speaker 3: story matters whether you're Maltese or not. And for a
Speaker 3: subject like this, you need an insider, someone who knows
Speaker 3: the place, someone like Manuel.
Speaker 2: A few years ago, when my writing about corruption led
Speaker 2: to me and my family receive incredible threats, I decided
Speaker 2: to leave the country temporarily. When I was stuck a
Speaker 2: long way from home, wondering if I was doing the
Speaker 2: right thing. John was one of the friends who visited
Speaker 2: me and became someone I could turn to. We've written
Speaker 2: a book together about Defnie and Malta's recent history, along
Speaker 2: with our co author, mafia expert Carlo Bonini. But a
Speaker 2: lot has changed since that book came out five years ago.
Speaker 3: Although do please buy it. Murder on the Malta Express
Speaker 3: is still available in all good bookshops.
Speaker 2: We now know a lot more about men like Chinese
Speaker 2: George and Vincent, the cough and the men who were
Speaker 2: accused of paying them. So what this Jack? I've invited
Speaker 2: John back to my home country. You see, I'm proud
Speaker 2: of this wonderful complex place. Hello John, Good morning morning.
Speaker 2: We're in Touchbash, which is part of the Northern Harbor,
Speaker 2: just north of Aleta, and we're going to the boat right,
Speaker 2: that's for that.
Speaker 4: I've got my sea legs on.
Speaker 2: Let's go meet.
Speaker 4: Ask. So what's this? What's the ship called again? A
Speaker 4: gin Fizz? Gin Fizz. I'm already thinking of that gin
Speaker 4: Fiz as we speak. All right, guys, you guys have
Speaker 4: probably been on Boast before, but I still have to
Speaker 4: go through the safety briefing by law.
Speaker 3: Can everybody swim?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Any medical issues I need to know.
Speaker 2: About a few facts to begin. Mota is the smallest
Speaker 2: country in the European Union, a chain of islands in
Speaker 2: the Mediterranean between Sicily and North Africa. Our whole country
Speaker 2: is less than half the size of New York City
Speaker 2: or London. It's also densely populated. There are half a
Speaker 2: million people here and plenty of history. We speak our
Speaker 2: own unique language derived from medieval Arabic eat footed that
Speaker 2: might remind you of Italy. And we're ruled as a
Speaker 2: British colony for one hundred and fifty years. And the
Speaker 2: jewel of this nation, our beautiful capital city of Valletta,
Speaker 2: is set in the majestic Grand Harbor. And you know what,
Speaker 2: grand and majestic are no exaggerations. This view can turn
Speaker 2: even a grizzled reporter like John to poverty.
Speaker 3: So we're passing into Grand Harbor, which is one of
Speaker 3: the most beautiful in the world.
Speaker 4: And there's something.
Speaker 3: About the honeycomb stone of Malta and the construction it
Speaker 3: was roughly the same time that constructed Venice of that
Speaker 3: kind of era.
Speaker 4: It's extraordinary.
Speaker 2: Found years off.
Speaker 3: So Venice is when venices twelve hundred, Venice is all up,
Speaker 3: you're about four hundred years off.
Speaker 4: I know nothing.
Speaker 2: Look, this is a beautiful place, and I can see
Speaker 2: why John thinks of Venice when he's sees it. In
Speaker 2: one direction from the boat, you can see a skyline
Speaker 2: jump built full of Renaissance churches, domes and forts, all
Speaker 2: crisscrossed with waterways and inlets, ferries and sailing boats.
Speaker 4: There's a gown a little boat zooming along. Looks rather cool.
Speaker 2: But alongside the history there is also the other Malta here,
Speaker 2: the new Malta of multi story concrete hotels and luxury
Speaker 2: apartment blocks, crowding right up to the water, catering for
Speaker 2: the new elite, and for some this is a playground.
Speaker 3: So the scale of the money here in boats is
Speaker 3: an extraordinary umber passing one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
Speaker 3: eight nine, and not quite super yachts, but they're pretty
Speaker 3: nice yachts.
Speaker 2: Well, if I'm careful where to look, I still love
Speaker 2: this place. This is my country. This bay is where
Speaker 2: I was brought up. This is where I went to swim,
Speaker 2: This is where I crossed the ferry to go to Valletta,
Speaker 2: my first job. And I see on one side hasn't
Speaker 2: changed much. And if you see photos from fifty or
Speaker 2: one hundred years ago hasn't changed much. On the other side,
Speaker 2: you blink and it's six stories higher.
Speaker 3: And this is rash of concrete. Acne is a symbol
Speaker 3: of the dirty money that is besieging Malta.
Speaker 2: Well you call it a symbol, John, it's actually a product.
Speaker 2: So some of it, at least, it's money being recycled
Speaker 2: from illicit activities and tax evasion.
Speaker 3: So as we round the point, beautiful old honeycombstone to
Speaker 3: our right, enormous cruise ship like a block of flats,
Speaker 3: ugliest sin. And the reason they're here is because Malta
Speaker 3: is a tourist paradise. But underneath these extraordinary beauty, in
Speaker 3: this this heft of history, there are some dark, dark shadows.
Speaker 4: This is a place where.
Speaker 6: Dark power and dark money likes to hang out. And
Speaker 6: if you try and tell truth to that dark money,
Speaker 6: in that dark power, if you're a journalist, it can
Speaker 6: be a very dangerous place.
Speaker 4: Indeed.
Speaker 1: October twelfth, twenty seventeen, opposition leader's wife says convicted drug
Speaker 1: dealer's girlfriend is one of my closest and most trusted friends.
Speaker 3: So Manuel, what are we listening to?
Speaker 2: Well, as with many things. To understand how we got here,
Speaker 2: you need to go back a while, in this case
Speaker 2: a decade ago to the mid twenty tens. Deers leading
Speaker 2: up to Daphanie's death. Remember blogs.
Speaker 1: Drug dealer's girlfriend says she and opposition leader's wife are
Speaker 1: close friends in Malta.
Speaker 2: They never really went away like sisters. At that point,
Speaker 2: I'd left politics and was working as a software salesman,
Speaker 2: and like many people in Malta, I'd begin each day
Speaker 2: by checking one politics blog, in particular a blog by
Speaker 2: Dfhanie Karwana Galicia.
Speaker 3: In this case, the husband dislieve with asked the actors
Speaker 3: Sienna Miller to read these extracts from Daphne's right.
Speaker 1: Friend is a convicted lifelong drug dealer who was released
Speaker 1: from jail a few months ago.
Speaker 3: I remember that time in Britain, too Big dreams that
Speaker 3: blogging could provide an alternative to newspapers and TV channels,
Speaker 3: a place where you could get your political news a
Speaker 3: bit more unfiltered.
Speaker 2: Well, in Malta, Dafanie's blog wasn't just a blog for
Speaker 2: political geeks. It was bigger than that. It made the news.
Speaker 2: It's been often said, was read by more people each
Speaker 2: day than any of Malta's newspapers. The newspapers did not
Speaker 2: dispute that claim.
Speaker 1: A bill to bring Malta's anti money laundering legislation in.
Speaker 2: Line with and here what's her secret? Defney's style wasn't
Speaker 2: dry paper of record staff. It was chetty, sarcastic.
Speaker 1: Are we supposed to laugh?
Speaker 4: Or what?
Speaker 2: Often? Angry? Sometimes gossipy, sometimes viciously personal at all?
Speaker 1: April fifteenth, twenty.
Speaker 2: Sixteen, always gripping.
Speaker 1: Malta is not a normal country, but a bizarre island,
Speaker 1: crowded with peculiar people who are either completely mad, very dotty,
Speaker 1: deeply stupid, totally malicious, or a combination of all.
Speaker 5: Of those things.
Speaker 1: Here is what I think that we have descended to
Speaker 1: the pits of ineptitude, abuse of power, trading in influence, cronyism,
Speaker 1: and corruption.
Speaker 7: I think it was quite anoveative. It was the narve.
Speaker 7: Daphne's narrative was quite unique. She had a brilliant command
Speaker 7: of the English language.
Speaker 2: Herman Grek is editor in chief of the Times of Malta,
Speaker 2: the country's actual paper of record, part of the journalistic establishment.
Speaker 7: And she was funny, and she was also brutal towards
Speaker 7: you know people she didn't like. In the case of Daphnie,
Speaker 7: was a one woman show, and she was out there
Speaker 7: without an editor, and she could say whatever she wanted.
Speaker 7: So that's what she presented.
Speaker 2: For most of my life. The big Motives newspapers like
Speaker 2: Herman's have been considered mostly serious and formal, while TV
Speaker 2: stations are the opposite, highly partisan, tabloid and openly backing
Speaker 2: one political party or the other. However angry Daphne's blog
Speaker 2: would be she could be trusted to have done her research,
Speaker 2: and any attempts to intimidate Daphnie would also end up
Speaker 2: in her blog.
Speaker 1: October fifth, twenty seventeen, ant Andrea Kuttayer, the owner of
Speaker 1: an illegal zoo in which big cats have bred for
Speaker 1: a lucrative market, has just wrung me to take issue
Speaker 1: with the fact that I wrote about his illegal operation
Speaker 1: earlier this afternoon. He did not ring to correct any
Speaker 1: reported facts, but to object to being placed in the limelight.
Speaker 1: Leave me alone and I'll.
Speaker 5: Leave you alone.
Speaker 2: And she was fearless.
Speaker 1: I am a very big millionaire, he said, do you
Speaker 1: have any idea how much money I have? I don't
Speaker 1: need to justify myself with anyone. Well, that's exactly the problem.
Speaker 1: I said. You think that because you have lots of
Speaker 1: money you can do what you please, that you are
Speaker 1: more equal than others before the law, And unfortunately you're
Speaker 1: being proved right on that.
Speaker 2: And that goes to the heart of Dapinice's philosophy. What
Speaker 2: connected so many of her stories the feeling that those
Speaker 2: with power and money in Morta had ceased to believe
Speaker 2: that the law applies to them. One rule for them,
Speaker 2: another for the rest of us. That multis society, the
Speaker 2: court's political parties, the press, ordinary voters, all of us
Speaker 2: were struggling to meet that onslaught.
Speaker 4: Was she on the.
Speaker 2: Money man, Well, well, yes, in my view, I'd say so,
Speaker 2: it's how it feels living here. And Daphne's response to
Speaker 2: that situation was simple. She wouldn't let them get away
Speaker 2: with their lies, not the big lies or the small ones.
Speaker 3: But that can be dangerous for someone working on their own.
Speaker 2: Yes, and because those with power and money and Malta
Speaker 2: were so used to getting their way, definitely found that
Speaker 2: they often didn't hide their lives all that.
Speaker 3: Well, Daphnie didn't just use the freedom that her blog
Speaker 3: gave her to fight corruption or take on the powerful.
Speaker 3: Unlike in the newspaper, there was no editor looking over
Speaker 3: Daphne's shoulder for a second opinion on what she was posting.
Speaker 3: That meant less interference, but it also meant that anyone
Speaker 3: could end up in her sights.
Speaker 2: Some of those posts about ordinary people make for uncomfortable reading.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's not just my imagination. When I look
Speaker 1: at stills and films of Labor mass meetings, I think
Speaker 1: that they looked just like a white trash convention. It's
Speaker 1: almost incredible.
Speaker 2: The Labor Party was the party in government at that time.
Speaker 2: The real DEFNI, or at least the face to face Deafni,
Speaker 2: was very different from blogging Deafnie. Less confrontation and less caustic.
Speaker 3: How well did you know a man?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 2: I knew her professionally, most as a small place, and
Speaker 2: we both worked in media and politics, and we shared
Speaker 2: some of the same fears and campaigns against corruption and
Speaker 2: dirt to money in politics. She was already an inspiration
Speaker 2: to me, and when she started breaking her really big stories,
Speaker 2: the ones that alleged serious crimes committed by powerful men,
Speaker 2: well then she was a hero to many people too.
Speaker 8: So I knew as a sister.
Speaker 3: This is Corin Vella, the younger sister of Daphne Carouana Galitzia.
Speaker 8: I only knew her sort of in a domestic environment,
Speaker 8: and the domestic in the sense of family environment, that
Speaker 8: of off duty kind of thing. The fact that she
Speaker 8: was prolific in her writing didn't mean it was the
Speaker 8: only thing she was doing. I mean, she did all
Speaker 8: kinds of things. She traveled, she know, she had a
Speaker 8: lovely home, she loved gardening, and she had a life
Speaker 8: outside her journalistic work. But that's only because people knew
Speaker 8: her through her work that they got the perception that
Speaker 8: that is the only thing she is doing.
Speaker 3: It's one of the real risks of any kind of
Speaker 3: high profile journalism. People will assume they know the real
Speaker 3: you from what they read, whatch or listen to.
Speaker 2: I mean, I do understand why people thought that she
Speaker 2: was her journalism. She wrote so much that it was
Speaker 2: hard to imagine how she had a life outside her writing.
Speaker 2: There could be multiple updates in a single day, and
Speaker 2: in a country as small as small town, there's really
Speaker 2: no way to stay in on it. If you are
Speaker 2: known and you go out in public, you will meet
Speaker 2: people who know who you are and they may have
Speaker 2: opinions about you that they want to share.
Speaker 8: I mean, it was a general sense of unease. But
Speaker 8: it wasn't like you were actually going to tell her
Speaker 8: to please stop doing this because you're making me nervous.
Speaker 8: Because you don't do or don't do something because of
Speaker 8: how someone else feels. That wouldn't be a reasonable request,
Speaker 8: and it didn't seem right to expect someone to be
Speaker 8: quiet because someone else couldn't tolerate their views.
Speaker 2: In her final few years, some politicians in particular became
Speaker 2: favorite targets for Daphne's blog posts, and after her death,
Speaker 2: these men would find themselves answering difficult questions, questions about
Speaker 2: how definitely had damaged their public images and about how
Speaker 2: they had responded how they had acted towards her.
Speaker 3: When we wrote a book together, it was clear that
Speaker 3: these politicians were already part of this story, but we
Speaker 3: didn't know the half of it, in terms of how
Speaker 3: the politics set the backdrop for everything else that would
Speaker 3: follow her. Perhaps the most importance of Daphne's targets was
Speaker 3: the then Prime Minister of Malta himself, Joseph Muscat, in
Speaker 3: office from twenty thirteen onwards.
Speaker 2: Definitely had a lot to say about him, a lot
Speaker 2: of it pretty strongly opinionated.
Speaker 5: May seventh, twenty twelve.
Speaker 1: Joseph Muscat a bloody fraud.
Speaker 5: Every seventh, twenty thirty.
Speaker 1: Like all cult leaders and gang leaders, Joseph Muscat uses
Speaker 1: decorative women to shore up his manhood and make himself
Speaker 1: seem magnetic.
Speaker 5: Every thirteenth, twenty thirteen.
Speaker 1: Did Joseph Muscat write his doctoral thesis?
Speaker 5: First?
Speaker 1: Twenty thirteen Joseph Muscat Power Hungry Scott first twenty fifteen.
Speaker 1: Joseph Muscat the quintessential demographic fourteenth, twenty sixteen. Joseph Muscat
Speaker 1: the Donald Trump Factor.
Speaker 3: So she's not really a fan of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
Speaker 4: Is she?
Speaker 2: You could say?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 2: Men like the Prime Minister weren't just politicians to Deafni,
Speaker 2: or even just allegedly corrupt politicians. For her, they represented
Speaker 2: a whole new political culture threatening undermining our nation.
Speaker 9: Malta is great an economics.
Speaker 2: This campaign, added from twenty sixteen, is typical slick, mostly
Speaker 2: in motives, but with matterings of English. Both languages are
Speaker 2: widely spoken in the country, although English is seen as
Speaker 2: the language of the more.
Speaker 9: Educated services, all industrial films.
Speaker 2: Moscow is fresh faced here in his early forties. He's
Speaker 2: been in power three years now, seeking re election. He's
Speaker 2: reminding us of all the great things about our country,
Speaker 2: including his government.
Speaker 3: It's clear he's going for the approachable, look, cheerful, quite
Speaker 3: informal chachi.
Speaker 9: Nadiv tala and the laudesh if.
Speaker 3: But then he's also speaking to us in the lobby
Speaker 3: of a grand government building, big staircase, flags everywhere. He's
Speaker 3: projecting power, but with a human face.
Speaker 2: That grand building is castile our White House or Downing Street.
Speaker 2: And yes that's the message. I am in power, but
Speaker 2: I'm just also an ordinary guy. And I speak to
Speaker 2: you in Maltese. But I can switch into English too
Speaker 2: if I need.
Speaker 9: A little laussh. If you reach Malta is great. We
Speaker 9: should just say it a little bit more.
Speaker 2: Of Another of his slogans was Malta tan Alcohol, meaning
Speaker 2: Malta belongs to all of us, sort of a Maltese
Speaker 2: version of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's We're taking back
Speaker 2: control or President Donald Trump's make America great Again. Mouscat's
Speaker 2: first government of twenty thirteen was supposed to be a
Speaker 2: new start for this country. We had been used to
Speaker 2: an older generation of leaders socially conservative courses, often perceived
Speaker 2: to be an effective or corrupt. Joseph Musquin promised to
Speaker 2: change all that, the modern progressive alternative government without a tie.
Speaker 2: Even Harmon Gregg, the newspaper editor, was impressed by some
Speaker 2: of it.
Speaker 7: Extremely charming, very popular, I would say, quite intelligence. He
Speaker 7: came across in the beginning as a bit of a
Speaker 7: revolutionizing his own party, you know, came across as a
Speaker 7: very pro severe rights, very pro business, and he changed
Speaker 7: alta dramatically.
Speaker 2: Not charming in everyone's eyes.
Speaker 4: Though.
Speaker 2: Here's corn Defne's sister.
Speaker 8: I don't know what the word is, a lap start.
Speaker 8: Let's say it's just really irritating personality.
Speaker 3: I see why this wouldn't wash with Daphnely.
Speaker 2: She gave a clear message to her readers, don't believe
Speaker 2: the hype. Underneath the image management. She believed there was
Speaker 2: a deeply cynical operator.
Speaker 7: She attacked him from the word goal. She she never
Speaker 7: liked him. Everything basically about him, about his way of living,
Speaker 7: about his politics, even his own you know, his family.
Speaker 8: We've been aware of him for a long time because
Speaker 8: he was a propagandist for the party eventually led. He
Speaker 8: ran the English language internet platform, terribly written, hopelessly misspelled,
Speaker 8: you know, just trying to carry favor with the English
Speaker 8: speaking half of the population.
Speaker 2: But however, Irriitating definitely had her family found Joseph mouscart
Speaker 2: Many voters liked him back then.
Speaker 8: By then politics had become all about marketing. So it
Speaker 8: was all about the branding, you know, the changing of
Speaker 8: the color of the ties they wore, changing the party logo,
Speaker 8: giving people catchy slogans, making themselves look hip and cool,
Speaker 8: you know, making the governing party at the time the
Speaker 8: girl and stuffy.
Speaker 7: He said that he's going to be Prime Minister for everybody.
Speaker 7: He promised everybody that this would be a multa for all,
Speaker 7: that the best is yet to come, you know, and
Speaker 7: he did deliver on some of those premises. He was
Speaker 7: very business friendly, and I would say quite a lot
Speaker 7: of people became rich overnight.
Speaker 2: And so after twenty thirteen, any threat to the Joseph
Speaker 2: Mouscant government could potentially prove extremely expensive to many people.
Speaker 2: So flesh forward to a night in October twenty seventeen,
Speaker 2: Joseph Moscant and his government have been in power now
Speaker 2: for four years. Daphne's blog is at the height of
Speaker 2: its power and fame, leading the fight against corruption of
Speaker 2: politicians once again. The following is a dramatization. We've taken
Speaker 2: evidence heard in the courtroom and reconstructed what happened according
Speaker 2: to that testimony. We have dramatized the evidence and provided
Speaker 2: color in places without changing any of the material facts
Speaker 2: or allegations.
Speaker 3: On this night, in the field in the countryside to
Speaker 3: the west of the Lessa, two men are silently practicing rehearsing,
Speaker 3: making preparations for a job.
Speaker 2: One of them we've already met, Vincent de kov Moscat,
Speaker 2: one of the contract killers in the stolen Toyota back
Speaker 2: in Burkerkara. And next to him is another man who
Speaker 2: is also definitely known to the police, Chinese George's younger brother,
Speaker 2: Alfred Ilfulu, the Georgio Alfred, the Georgia Ilfulu. It means
Speaker 2: the bean, so Alfred, the bean de Georgio. Let's just
Speaker 2: say he's in the same line of business as his
Speaker 2: older and vincenta.
Speaker 3: Kof It's a warm style this evening, trying to minimize noise.
Speaker 3: Vincent the cough and Alfred the Bean creep into their
Speaker 3: hiding place in the brush on the side of a hill,
Speaker 3: overlooking a wide, shallow valley. Out on the horizon, they
Speaker 3: can just make out the coast the Mediterranean and inky blackness,
Speaker 3: broken up by occasional lights from boats. But they aren't
Speaker 3: here to enjoy the scenery. They need to stay hidden
Speaker 3: at all times and leave no trace when they've gone.
Speaker 3: They've already spent a while here, watching and waiting, noting
Speaker 3: patterns of movement, getting through a lot of cigarettes with
Speaker 3: the tension and the boredom bills.
Speaker 2: Right now, Vincent Koff is purged on a couple of bricks,
Speaker 2: looking through the telescope, relaying what he is to Alfred
Speaker 2: de Bean Mushna. He's just noted that the target has
Speaker 2: left the room nearest them. The house they're watching is
Speaker 2: a traditional old matese farmhouse, the same elegant pale limestone
Speaker 2: as the buildings of Valletta, surrounded by high walls and lush,
Speaker 2: thickly planted gardens. Daphne's family home where she lives with
Speaker 2: her husband and two of her adult sons. It's a beautiful,
Speaker 2: peaceful spot.
Speaker 3: The garden wall is one of the family's few concessions
Speaker 3: to security after years of threats and attacks due to
Speaker 3: Daphne's writing. But from their position up on the hill,
Speaker 3: the men can see down over the walls through the
Speaker 3: windows into the home itself.
Speaker 2: Daphanie and her husband Peter have lived here for decades,
Speaker 2: raised their three sons here. As you'd expect in a
Speaker 2: small place like Bidnia, everyone locally knows where the Karwana
Speaker 2: Galizias live. Definitely sometimes writes her block posts from home,
Speaker 2: so she is often in the house and at certain
Speaker 2: times she walks past the farmhouse windows and into the
Speaker 2: telescopes view.
Speaker 4: Say that first the fun on our computer.
Speaker 2: Right now, they can see her sitting on a sofa.
Speaker 2: Daphaney has settled down to type on her laptop. She's relaxed, unaware.
Speaker 3: Just on the side of Vincent Lecough there's a rifle
Speaker 3: with a telescopic sight. They tested it a few days
Speaker 3: ago in a field. It's only one of the weapons
Speaker 3: they've been supplied with for the job. They're saving their
Speaker 3: AK forty seven if they encounter any police roadblocks when
Speaker 3: making a getaway. But above all, the sniper shot needs
Speaker 3: accuracy to create a more stable shooting position. They've even
Speaker 3: filled pillowcases with soil to act as sandbags.
Speaker 4: Jempilloo am.
Speaker 2: Now Daphne is settled and visible. One of the men
Speaker 2: uses a burner phone to text Chinese George, the designated
Speaker 2: getaway driver. The message is simple, we are ready, she
Speaker 2: is in position. Get here now, because by now the
Speaker 2: group is under pressure to get this done. Those who
Speaker 2: hire them have said that if they don't act soon,
Speaker 2: something might get published that shouldn't get published. When Chinese
Speaker 2: George does arrive, the plan is that he will park
Speaker 2: close by, using a stolen vehicle as a getaway car,
Speaker 2: just like in the Carmelkerkop murder. And like then they'll
Speaker 2: also have a back up AK forty seven. At last,
Speaker 2: it's all coming together and inside the house, as the
Speaker 2: evening goes on, Daphne stays by the window, writing and
Speaker 2: writing and writing.
Speaker 3: Offer the being a steady sus grip on the row
Speaker 3: rifle and hugs the butt into his shoulder, preparing his
Speaker 3: body to absorb the recoil.
Speaker 4: He alignes the bead and.
Speaker 3: The crook to ensure he has the perfect aim right
Speaker 3: at Daphne working on her laptop. All they need now
Speaker 3: is the signal from Chinese George, but the getaway car
Speaker 3: is ready and waiting nearby.
Speaker 2: When that message comes, all it will take will be
Speaker 2: a simple squeeze of the trigger that's next. At the
Speaker 2: time of recording, criminal proceedings are ongoing against some of
Speaker 2: the individuals accused of murdering definite Carvana Gazzia and other victims.
Speaker 2: We will fill you in more about where the case
Speaker 2: is as the serious progresses, but for now it s
Speaker 2: a fy sister say George, George, Joe and j Mivella,
Speaker 2: who you heard about earlier in the show, denied any
Speaker 2: involvement in killing Daphne or Carmel ker Kopp. Crooks Everywhere
Speaker 2: is a production of iHeart Podcasts, Topic Studios and Vespucci.
Speaker 2: It's reported and hosted by me Manuel Delia and John Sweeney.
Speaker 2: The senior producer is Leo Hornack, The producer is Maddi Hickish.
Speaker 2: Chris Dinesh Kumar is the assistant producer. The story editors
Speaker 2: are Emma Federill, Matt Willis and Philippa Geering. The managing
Speaker 2: producers are Thomas Curry and Rachel Byrne. The voice of
Speaker 2: Dafnie Krwana Galizia is played by Ciena Miller, acting direction
Speaker 2: by Christopher Houten. Maltese voices by Mikhail basma Jan and
Speaker 2: Pierre staff Rach. The executive producers are Johnny Galvin and
Speaker 2: Daniel Turken at Vespucci, Christi Gressman at Topic Studios, Katina
Speaker 2: Norvel and Nikki Etoor at iHeart Podcas gusts Ancienna Miller
Speaker 2: Marketing Leaders, David Wasserman. Audio recording by Tom Berry at
Speaker 2: Wardoor Studios. Audio mix and sound design by Joel Cox.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to Andrew Botchcardona, Alessandra di Crespo, Eddie Isles,
Speaker 2: and Andrew Carwina Galicia