Man admits importing stolen vehicles
The vehicles were later shipped to North Africa
A man was given a two-year jail term, suspended for four years, after admitting his involvement in transporting high-value stolen vehicles to Malta.
Magistrate Astrid May Grima heard Libyan national Ahmed Ab’a Khabiza, 37, admit to handling three stolen cars that he brought into Malta from Pozzallo, Sicily, between November and December 2025.
The vehicles were a Toyota Land Cruiser, a Lexus, and an MG.
During the arraignment in December 2025, Police Inspector Shawn Pawney said customs officials at the Marsa ferry terminal had informed police about a suspicious vehicle that had just disembarked from Sicily.
Officers from the Stolen Vehicles Section went on site and found several inconsistencies.
Police established that Khabiza had come to Malta twice before, bringing two vehicles which were later found to have been stolen - one from Spain and another from Italy.
He added that the accused, along with another man, was arrested following a “highly complex investigation” which revealed that vehicles had been imported into Malta using false documents from different EU countries.
After being kept in Malta for “a few days,” the vehicles were sent to North Africa and the Middle East.
Lawyers Franco Debono and Adreana Zammit represented the accused.