Police believe that the murder of two men in a Sliema home last week was likely to have been carried out by professional criminals involved in a foreign organised crime group.

The police are hunting for three men seen leaving the Sliema residence where former investment banker Chris Pandolfino and art collector Ivor Maciejowski were shot dead last Tuesday.

Meanwhile, TVM reported on Monday that a white SUV believed to have been used as the getaway car is being examined by the police. Officers towed the car away from the car park near St Luke’s Hospital on Thursday.

TVM said equipment which may be used to interfere with police messages and phone transmissions was found inside along with other items connected to the murders.   

The vehicle, a VW Tiguan, was stolen two years ago but carried number plates that were stolen more recently.  

Sources involved in the investigation have meanwhile told Times of Malta that the shooting is believed to have been carried out by foreign nationals.  

“This fits with a type of crime we have seen before conducted by foreign groups,” said one officer involved in the case.

The police are not ruling out that the double murder was the result of a botched robbery but say it could have also been a targeted assassination. 

Flowers rest on steps behind police tape at the Sliema house where the two men were murdered. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

“As many know by now, there were a lot of high-value items in the house, and the victims were wealthy, so it may have been a robbery. Or it could have been something else, we still aren’t sure,” the source said.

A review of an inventory of items in the house was ongoing, sources said, adding that relatives had given contrasting accounts of what was held in the property. 

Deeper analysis of the murder scene, as well as the autopsies being carried out on the two men, could yield further clues. Police say a 9mm pistol was probably used in the murder. Camera footage lifted by the police after the murder showed three men, believed to be the murder suspects, enter the couple’s house on Locker Street at 10.19pm.

They left just four minutes later, at 10.23pm, exiting the property and escaping in the white vehicle.

Police are trawling footage from various CCTV cameras as part of their investigations.

A police spokesman on Monday would give no further details.