A former top police officer suspected of corruption with murder suspect Yorgen Fenech has yet to be prosecuted.

Ray Aquilina, the former head of the police’s anti-money laundering unit, was arrested in April 2021.

The arrest formed part of a wider probe into police and government officials who potentially leaked sensitive information to suspects in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder investigation.

Times of Malta had reported in 2021 how investigators felt there were grounds to prosecute Aquilina.

However, an official familiar with the probe said a decision was taken to delay any prosecutions until after the magisterial inquiry into the leaks has been concluded.

The police are empowered to act independently of such inquiries.

As part of the leaks probe, investigators zoomed in on the planned sale of a Birżebbuġa apartment to Aquilina, that Fenech was suspected of facilitating.

At that stage, Aquilina was meant to be investigating Fenech over his ownership of 17 Black, a secret company suspected to have been intended to funnel payments to former government officials Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri.

Instead of Aquilina appearing as the property buyer, the property transaction was to be fronted by his parents, who would then donate it to their son.

Documents reviewed by Times of Malta indicate that Aquilina had claimed he was not buying the property directly himself as he was undergoing separation proceedings with his wife, and therefore did not want the property to form part of their joint assets.

Aquilina had claimed during the sale process that the property acquisition was being funded through his personal savings.

The former police officer’s relationship with Fenech came under scrutiny soon after the arrest of self-confessed murder middleman Melvin Theuma in November 2019.

Theuma was arrested as part of a money laundering operation that was used as a guise to obtain recordings the murder middleman secretly took with Fenech.

According to court testimony, messages exchanged between Fenech and Theuma in the days and hours leading up to the middleman’s arrest indicated the pair knew the planned money laundering raids were just a guise for the police to obtain the recordings.

As Theuma became increasingly nervous about his impending arrest, Fenech had assured him that “Ray”, understood to be a reference to Aquilina, was going to be handling the arrest.

Soon after retiring from the police force, Aquilina was appointed as a manager within Enemalta’s internal audit and governance section. He no longer occupies the role.

The magisterial inquiry into the leaks has been open for close to four years.

Keith Schembri, the right-hand man of former prime minister Joseph Muscat, featured as one of the suspects in the inquiry, along with ex-police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar and ex-deputy commissioner Silvio Valletta.

All concerned deny wrongdoing.

Fenech is set to face a trial over his alleged role in commissioning the murder.

He denies masterminding the October 2017 assassination, with his lawyers last week suggesting that Schembri is the murder mastermind.