Police believe a detonator discovered hidden at sea is the same type as that used in the car bomb murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. 

A stash of fully automatic assault rifles and other weapons found on the seabed on Sunday is believed to be linked to Ta’ Maksar, the brothers charged with complicity in the 2017 murder of Caruana Galizia. 

Sources said the weapons, which include AK-47 automatic rifles, other firearms and a bomb detonator, are believed to have been hidden away by the organised crime group allegedly headed by brothers Robert and Adrian Agius.

Robert and Adrian Agius were arraigned in February. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

The Agius duo, together with associate Jamie Vella, stand accused of having supplied the bomb allegedly used by the assassins to murder Caruana Galizia outside her home in Bidnija. 

The cache of weapons, stashed away in waterproof bags, were recovered by a team of army divers from the seabed off Miġra l-Ferħa cliffs, on the island’s northwest coast. 

Robert Agius lives close by in Baħrija. 

One of the country’s most dangerous organised crime groups

Two sources confirmed that the detonator is believed to be the same type as the one used in the murder of the prominent journalist and blogger. Investigators are working on the theory that the device was one of three imported into the country by Ta’ Maksar from overseas crime associates. 

A team of divers recovered the weapons yesterday.

The other device is believed to have been used in the February 2017 car bomb attack on known criminal Romeo Bone.

That explosion, which went off in rush-hour traffic in the middle of the Msida junction, saw Bone survive but losing both his legs and also suffering severe injuries to his upper body. 

An inquiry into the weapons find began on Sunday and is being headed by Magistrate Monica Vella.  

The police said a search started after a tip-off at 3pm on Sunday and continued for almost four hours, before resuming yesterday morning.

The investigation is being headed by the police’s major crimes unit.  

In 2020, a joint investigation by Times of Malta and MaltaToday exposed how the Ta’ Maksar gang had long been identified by as one of the country’s most dangerous organised crime groups.

Confidential information obtained by the Investigative Reporting Project Italy and shared with Times of Malta as part of the Daphne Project indicates that the Agius brothers are connected to Italian, Libyan, Romanian and even Albanian organised crime groups