Guilty verdicts for the Maksar gang, who supplied bomb that killed Caruana Galizia and murdered lawyer over More Supermarkets loan
In both events, stories in MaltaToday and the Times of Malta detailed the rise of the Maksars and the events leading up to the murder of Carmel Chircop
On 6 January 2020, 15 months before the arrest of the ‘Maksar’ brothers Adrian and Robert Agius, I broke the story of the motive for the murder of lawyer Carmel Chircop, a Birkirkara lawyer who had stumped €750,000 in credit for More Supermarkets.
Chircop, 51, was found dead in a Birkirkara multi-storey garage in 2015, after being shot four times. He had been one of the ‘investors’ in the mysterious More Supermarkets bust.
In March 2014, Chircop entered into a contract with Ryan Schembri, then appearing as director of the company Erom Limited, to loan him the sum of €750,000. Also appearing as debtors in the contract were Schembri’s business partner Etienne Cassar, as well as Adrian Agius: one of the men first arrested by police in December 2017 in connection with the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, and later released on police bail. Together, Schembri and Cassar, and Agius, owned shares in another joint company called InterAA Holdings (that AA probably meant Adrian Agius, who was specifically tied to the More Supermarkets Hamrun branch only).
Agius was one of the 10 men arrested by police in December 2017 in connection with the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, but was released within days without charges.
According to their contract, Chircop agreed to loan More €750,000 interest-free. The loan had already taken place, since a €50,000 repayment took place on the day of the contract itself, and a further payment was expected by the end of the month on 31 March, 2014, with a further €50,000 on 30 April 2014. A final payment of €600,000 had to be settled by not later than 15 February, 2015. The contract, however, bound the creditors to repay the entire sum within seven days of being notified by Chircop of any default in payment terms.
Agius was guarantor on the debt, presenting as a special hypothec his grand villa property on Engineer Street, Madliena heights.
But three months later, Schembri started transferring his supermarket business to a new investor, the restaurateur Darren Casha, and suddenly fled the island in September 2014.
Chircop was murdered in 2015. And six months after Chircop’s murder, Adrian Agius took recourse to the law courts in a bid to cancel the notarial deed that had locked in his property as guarantee for the €750,000 debt. He managed to convince Chircop’s wife to settle for €165,000.
Months later, in October 2020, I joined Times journalists Ivan Martin and Jacob Borg to write an important piece that framed the role of the Maksar gang in many of the gangland killings that had predated the Caruana Galizia assassination.
The upshot was clear, as investigators finally accused - in March 2021 - the Agiuses and Jamie Vella of having supplied the explosives that the Degiorgio brothers used to kill journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
The verdicts of 5th June, 2025, at 7:29pm were:
Count 1: Wilful homicide of Carmel Chircop
George Degiorgio: Guilty
Jamie Vella: Guilty (7-2)
Count 2: Complicity in the murder of Carmel Chircop
Adrian Agius: Guilty (7-2)
Robert Agius: Not guilty (6-3)
Count 3: Possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime
George Degiorgio: Guilty (7-2)
Jamie Vella: Guilty (7-2)
Count 4: Carrying a weapon without a valid licence
George Degiorgio: Guilty (7-2)
Jamie Vella: Guilty (7-2)
Count 5: Complicity in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia
Robert Agius: Guilty (8-1)
Jamie Vella: Guilty (8-1)
Count 6: Complicity in the explosion that caused the death of Daphne Caruana Galizia
Robert Agius: Guilty (8-1)
Jamie Vella: Guilty (8-1)
Count 7: Possessing dangerous explosives
Robert Agius: Guilty (8-1)
Jamie Vella: Guilty (8-1)