Fugitive Fabio Psaila, the man recently named as the “general” in David Gatt’s criminal organisation, gave himself up yesterday evening.
He was arrested at the Police Headquarters in Floriana at about 7 p.m. After being interviewed briefly he was escorted to hospital to be treated for the injuries he is believed to have sustained in a botched hold-up on a jeweller in Attard on December 3.
In fact, Mr Psaila is believed to have buckled under the pressure of the police closing in on him and the pain from his untreated injuries.
He had been on the run since the evening of the hold-up during which his alleged partner in crime, Darren Debono, known as It-Topo, was arrested when he collapsed in pain after he too was shot in the leg by the son of the targeted jeweller Michael Mizzi, who managed to snatch a sawn-off shotgun carried by one of the men.
However, while he was in hiding, Mr Psaila was implicated in the alleged criminal gang of former police inspector and lawyer David Gatt, who stands charged with masterminding at least three holdups and advising criminals on a fourth. According to the testimony of Police Constable Mario Portelli, who spilled the beans on the former Rabat inspector, Dr Gatt considered Mr Psaila as “the general” in his criminal organisation, which the young lawyer modelled on the Mafia Corleonese and in which he likened himself to the ruthless Sicilian boss Toto Riina.
On the witness stand, PC Portelli also revealed that the police had been trying to buy time before the arrest of Dr Gatt in a bid to capture Mr Psaila. The constable was playing a double game with Dr Gatt, who, he said, asked him to seek medical help for Mr Psaila.
PC Portelli said he contacted his superiors to let them know the lawyer was harbouring the criminal. He was told to bide time so that Mr Psaila could be apprehended but Dr Gatt was arrested the following morning.
Police sources said they held back and acted cautiously at certain points because they feared PC Portelli could put himself in harm’s way.
“There were elements that suggested that PC Portelli’s information leak could have endangered him at that point,” a police source had said.
Mr Psaila had also been questioned by the police as part of their investigations into t he failed hold-up at the HSBC depot in Qormi at the end of June, during which two police officers were showered with bullets by four robbers.
In that exchange, Mr Debono was also allegedly injured, with a bullet becoming l odged i n his j aw. He was l ater apprehended as he sought medical help and charged along with Vincent Muscat, the only two suspects accused of that crime so far.
Over the past few years, Mr Psaila has faced charges of car theft and handling stolen goods. He was also jailed for four years by a Sicilian court for drug trafficking, after being arrested in Sicily following “the largest ever drug haul” in Catania.