Updated 8.15am, adds details on second arrest

The man arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of involvement in last week’s double murder has told the police he was not the mastermind, according to sources close to the investigation.

Daniel Muka, a 25-year-old Albanian national, spent most of Wednesday under police interrogation, insisting that he was not the brains behind the crime.

Meanwhile, Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri announced early on Thursday that another arrest was made overnight in connection with the case. He congratulated the police for their work. 

The police said in a statement later the second suspect, who was hiding at a hotel in Gżira, was arrested at around 11pm by the Major Crimes Unit.

After spending some time on site observing his movements, the police circled the place and embarked on their operation.

As soon as he got aware of police presence, the suspect tried to escape but he was immediately arrested.

One line of inquiry by the police is that it was a botched robbery.

Muka was arrested in a dramatic operation at a Floriana property.

On Wednesday, he admitted he was part of the group of people involved in the crime but denied he was the one who had planned it, the sources said.

He is not believed to have spilled the beans on the identity of the other two men who were seen on CCTV fleeing the scene from a house in Locker Street, Sliema, on August 18. Muka is expected to be charged in court on Thursday.

Christian Pandolfino, a doctor who moved to the investment banking sector in London, and his art-collector partner, Ivor Maciejowski, were shot dead in what is believed to have been a four-minute operation.

Pandolfino was hit by four shots, Maciejowski was shot once

Six shots were fired from a 9mm handgun, which is believed to have been recovered during Tuesday’s police raid.

Forensic experts are now comparing its bullets with those that killed the two men.

Pandolfino was hit by four shots, Maciejowski was shot once, and one shot went astray. The sources close to the investigation said forensic tests on items found in the getaway car, which the police traced to Guardamangia last Friday, led investigators to Muka.

Inside the getaway car were clothes, items taken from the Sliema property as well as the registration plates seen on the CCTV footage. The police also found two replica guns – an AK47 and a Thomson Rifle. 

Muka’s fingerprints allegedly matched those lifted from some of these items.

The Albanian was out on bail over two cases he is facing in court.

In one case he stands charged, along with his brother, with the violent robbery of some €333,000 worth of jewellery in an armed hold-up at Diamonds International in Tigné Point in 2017.

He is separately charged with the attempted murder of two police officers whom he allegedly tried to shoot during his arrest a week after the robbery.

The police also arrested a Maltese man, Jason Caruana, whom they have questioned over the possibility that he was harbouring the Albanian.

Caruana was released without charge after investigators established he was not aware Muka may have been involved in the Sliema murders, sources said.