Updated 6.30pm
A 43-year-old man has been arrested after a three-day nationwide manhunt, following the discovery of dismembered body parts in a suitcase in Gżira, Times of Malta is informed.
The suspect, a Colombian national, believed to be behind the gruesome find, was apprehended by police at a property in Msida on Thursday after an intensive search across the country. A 39-year-old Portuguese man who was in the same property was also arrested.
Details about the arrested men and the motive of the crime are still sketchy but sources said the case appears to be related to drug trafficking.
The man whose body was found dismembered in a suitcase at sea in Gżira is believed to have died of asphyxiation and was later found to have more than 100 cocaine tablets in his body, police have confirmed.
An autopsy carried out on the victim showed he probably suffocated to death before his body parts were dumped at sea around 12 hours later.
With the help of CCTV footage, the police had mounted a nationwide manhunt for the suspect.
Three days on, the identity of the victim, who is probably a foreigner, is still unknown.
An axe is believed to have been used to dismember the body, which was dumped inside the suitcase. Investigators believe the crime was committed just hours before the grim discovery since the body had not yet decomposed.
An autopsy showed the middle-aged victim was probably used as a drug mule judging by the drug capsules found in his stomach. Sources on Thursday told Times of Malta more than 100 cocaine capsules had been found on the victim.
The incident began with reports of a suspicious piece of luggage and army explosives experts were initially called in to the seafront location. However, it transpired the suitcase contained a body.
Dury magistrate Ian Farrugia is leading an inquiry.
Monday’s grim discovery is the fifth murder to take place in Malta this year, an increase from three the previous year.
Taxi driver Eric Borg was shot dead in his hometown of Rabat on New Year’s Day while later that month Colombian woman Sandra Ramirez was stabbed to death in her home..
In August, Nicolette Ghirxi was found dead in her home after being stabbed to death by her Irish ex-partner Edward William Johnston, who was later shot dead by police after a stand-off in St Julian’s.
Two months later, 54-year-old Mount Carmel resident Jesmond Gatt was found unconscious in a pool of blood, succumbing to his injuries days later.