Nine plead not guilty to charges related to trafficking women for prostitution
Eight men and a woman have denied charges relating to trafficking women from abroad for the purposes of prostitution in Malta.
The arraignment took place on Tuesday evening, after Maltese police carried out a series of simultaneous, early-morning raids across Malta in Birkirkara, Gżira, St. Paul’s Bay, Siġġiewi, Fgura, Gudja, Paolo, Żebbuġ, and Senglea, making 11 arrests on charges of human trafficking.
The operation took place early morning on Monday 12 August.
Nine were charged on Tuesday evening, all Maltese except for one Romanian man and one Romanian woman.
The defendants are: Luke Farrugia, 36 years old, from Birkirkara who told the court that he was self-employed in the maintenance and finishes trade; Clint D’Amato 36 years old, from Gudja who works as a driver; Denzil Farrugia, 19 years old, from Marsa, a catering industry worker; Alexandra Suhov Procora, a 32-year old Romanian woman residing at St Paul’s Bay, who told the court that she was an accountant; Nicolae Efimov, 37 years old, also Romanian and residing in St Paul’s Bay; barber Kane Vassallo, 22 years old, from Siġġiewi; Luca Emanuele Corito, 21 years old, from Senglea, who refused to state his occupation; Dylan McKay, 30 years old, a taxi driver from Fgura and Gordon Cassar, a 44 year-old maintenance worker from Żebbug.
All nine are charged with money laundering, promoting or setting up a criminal organisation, and forcing individuals over 21 years of age into prostitution, holding persons against their will in a brothel as bonded debtors, knowingly living off the earnings of prostitution and running a brothel.
Luke and Denzil Farrugia, as well as D’Amato, Pocora, Vassallo and McKay are further charged with human trafficking for the purposes of exploitation, or slavery, which crime was committed through violence.
Cassar, Corito and Efimov were also charged with assisting in the trafficking of persons for the purpose of exploitation or prostitution.
Luke Farrugia and Dylan Mckay are also charged with making use of services from trafficked persons. Mckay was also charged with committing a crime during an operative period of a suspended sentence and recidivism.
D’Amato was further charged with possession of cocaine in circumstances indicating that it was not intended for his personal use.
Police started investigating brothel
Police Inspector, John Spiteri, told the court that the police investigation had started with an investigation into a brothel, but it emerged that four Colombian girls who had been found there had also been trafficked. Initially there were doubts as to who was organising it, but the two-month investigation “showed that every person in this courtroom played an active role in this criminal activity”.
After questioning the girls who had been trafficked, the police were able to identify who was behind the operation, he said.
A magisterial inquiry had also been carried out in parallel with the police investigation. When the police felt that there were sufficient grounds, they obtained search and arrest warrants against 11 individuals, which were executed yesterday.
Every person who had been arrested had released a statement and the police found sufficient grounds to charge nine of them, said the inspector, adding that the duty magistrate had been immediately informed of the arrests.
In reply to a question from defence lawyer Franco Debono, the inspector said that the inquiry had started on 13 June.
“During yesterday’s operation, it emerged that another brothel was also operating and another four people have been identified as witnesses”, the inspector informed the court, adding that just three hours before the arraignment, he had discovered that another trafficked woman had been due to arrive at the airport from where she would be picked up by one of the defendants.
All the defendants pleaded not guilty. Bail was requested.
Prosecution objects to bail
The prosecution requested that protection orders be issued in favour of the trafficked women, which were upheld by the court.
Prosecutor Ramon Bonett Sladden objected to the bail request. “Here we are dealing with a complex, planned, criminal operation. If released on bail, there is a risk that the operation will resume and further crimes be committed. The victims are doubly vulnerable, by the fruit of their being trafficked and the fact they don’t speak any local languages”, he submitted, adding that some of the defendants are also recidivists.
“We aren’t talking about a one or two-man operation, but an organisation. There is the possibility that the police will discover further individuals involved.”
Inspector Spiteri told the court that although every defendant had their own particular circumstances, they formed part of a singular criminal organisation. Releasing any of them from arrest is not only premature, but would put justice at risk.
Lawyer Franco Debono argued that requests to deny bail needed to be supported by evidence. “I believe that in this case, safeguards must be applied with greater rigour”, said the lawyer, pointing out that some of his clients had no prior convictions. “When I have a person with a clean criminal conduct, and the AG asks what he would do if granted bail, I would say probably the same thing that he had done for his entire life without conviction.” The lawyer suggested that even in drug trafficking cases, where the punishment is much larger, defendants had been granted bail.
Inspector Spiteri countered that there had not been any attempts at suborning the witnesses in the previous months, because they had been held at a secure location. The defendants thought that they had been deported, explained the inspector.
“This is a textbook case where every witness is vulnerable to be influenced in every possible way, including through threats to their families back in Colombia, as has already happened in this case.”
In his bail submissions, lawyer Roberto Montalto asked what the point of bail conditions were if they were apparently so ineffective.
Lawyer Mario Mifsud expressed surprise at recent decisions made by Maltese law enforcement. “Investigations are ongoing and will remain to be ongoing. This week, we had several people named in connection with the scandal and only now an inquiry was started”, argued the lawyer, but his client was in the dock for having “only given a lift to one of the Colombian women”, said the lawyer.
“Couldn’t he have given a lift to a Japanese woman, or someone from another country? We’ve imported 18,000 people, turned this country into a pigsty, and we’re accusing him of money laundering over a paltry €100?”
Lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri, Charles Merceica, Etienne Borg Ferranti, Kathleen Calleja Grima and Michaela Giglio are assisting the individual defendants.
AG Lawyers Ramon Bonett Sladden and Charmaine Abdilla prosecuted together with police inspectors John Spiteri, Joseph Xerri and Dorianne Tabone.
Lawyer Kathleen Calleja Grima told the court that her client had only received a small amount of money for driving one of the women around. “I cannot understand how an individual whose alleged involvement was in the lower ranks of the organisation could pose a risk to the evidence if granted bail. Let us put things into perspective.”
He rebutted the argument that Corito’s involvement was minor because he drove the women around. “I don’t think it’s minimal to receive €400 a month for knowingly helping a person run a brothel.”
Sitting interrupted
Inspector Spiteri’s reply was interrupted by a disturbance inside the courtroom, when a member of the public was taken outside by police officers who suspected him of recording the proceedings on his mobile phone. The court ordered the officers to examine the device immediately.
The man, Jurgen Cassar, was returned to the courtroom. He told the court that he had “pressed the record button by accident”, and insisted that everything was OK because the video hadn’t been sent. “There is an exclamation mark next to it. It wasn’t sent”, Cassar said.
The court informed the man that he had committed a criminal offence and ordered the police to investigate the matter.
Bail denied
After hearing the submissions from all the parties, the court denied bail.
“The court, after hearing the expressive submissions by all parties, begins by pointing out that all the defendants are charged with participating in a criminal organisation. While it is well aware of the presumption of innocence, the court feels that the risk to evidence is a real one”, the magistrate said. The investigation is at too early a stage and the magisterial inquiry had not heard the testimony of all the witnesses, the court added, before proceeding to deny the bail request.
All accused will remain in custody and taken to the Corradino Correctional Facility.