Malta is drafting replies to a number of Russian queries that blocked proposed sanctions against a ring of alleged fuel smugglers.  

Foreign Minister Carmelo Abela told Times of Malta that Maltese authorities are engaging with their Russian counterparts in a bid to get Russia to lift its temporary block on proposed United Nations sanctions against the former footballer turned alleged fuel smuggler Darren Debono and his known associates.

Last month, Mr Abela travelled to Moscow to meet representatives of the Russian government and discuss the proposed sanctions.  

Mr Abela said Malta was engaging with Russia over the matter, and other regional issues of interest to the two countries.  

In July, Malta put forward UN “designations” (to put them on a sanctions list) for Mr Debono and his associates, fuel trader Gordon Debono and Libyan Fahmi Bin Khalifa, to the UN Security Council.

Gordon Debono

Although many members of the Security Council were quick to approve the proposed designations, Russia put the matter on hold at the 11th hour.

Mr Abela said Malta would soon send the UN a formal reply on the matter. 

Darren Debono and Gordon Debono (no relation) were hit by US Treasury Department sanctions last year, with businesses and bank accounts impacted. 

Darren Debono’s restaurant along Valletta’s Marsamxett Harbour, Scoglitti, was also blacklisted. 

Sources have said that the bulk of the wealth of the two Maltese players in this racket was not on the island and was believed to be hidden in tax havens outside the European Union. 

A UN sanctioning would mean that the three men would find it far more difficult to get their hands back on their money, no matter how well it had been hidden away.  

Darren Debono and Gordon Debono were both arrested by Italian police in 2017 shortly after the arrest of Mr Bin Khalifa by Libyan militiamen.

The multi-million fuel smuggling operation would see Maltese ships transport Libyan State fuel out of North Africa and into the European market, with the help of falsified paperwork and mafia contacts. 

Darren Debono

A two-year investigation by Italian police, code-named Operation Dirty Oil, blew the lid off the operation after a United Nations’ Panel of Experts on Libya report had detailed the criminal gang’s operations. 

The network is believed to have smuggled over 80 million kilogrammes of gasoil out of Libya. 

A Sicilian mafia associate, named Nicola Orazio Romeo, was also mentioned in the paperwork handed to the UN Security Council by Malta, however, he would not face sanctions yet.