A Mafia State can only survive with a corrupt police chief

Robert Abela’s history as Prime Minister is mostly filled with a long list of cover-ups of corrupt politicians, the last one being the attempted and ongoing cover-up of Minister for Gozo Anton Refalo. You can’t run a criminal organisation from the government without the support and approval of the police.

Just a quick reminder of how rule-of-law works when political corruption takes place. Spanish Prime Minister Maiano Rajoy was arrested by the police in 2018 along with his party’s treasurer. The governing party’s headquarters was raided by the police, Rajoy was prosecuted in court and the government had to resign. The party treasurer was handed a 33-year prison sentence for money laundering and illicit campaign finance. Mariano Rajoy and the People’s Party were accused of laundering illicit and undeclared political campaign donations from notable Spanish businessmen and building contractors. The Spanish police have a reputation for being biased to the right, yet it is the same police that dismantled the People’s Party and forced it out of government.

Here in Malta, the police are polar opposites of the Spanish police when it comes to corruption: totally corrupt and subservient to the government.

This is not speculation. There is a long trail of paper evidence that proves the continuous and constant corrupt cover-ups of Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa that absolved corrupt politicians from prosecution.

One particular case where there is clear evidence that Angelo Gafa abdicated from his duties, corrupted his role, and covered up for corrupt politicians is the case regarding previous Education Minister Justyne Caruana and her corrupt permanent secretary Frank Fabri.

There exists a file at the attorney general’s office that recommends the police for a criminal investigation on Justyne Caruana and Frank Fabri for trading in influence. The file has a clear recommendation for a criminal investigation to lead to an arraignment. The suspected charges listed in the file are several and include the charge of trading in influence which has a maximum sentence of six years in prison.

Angelo Gafa didn’t follow the recommendation of the prosecutor. He shelved the file intentionally to allow the charges to eventually become time-barred. And Gafa still has a copy of this file in his office.

I wonder what Angelo Gafa really thinks he is accomplishing by serving the role of a corrupt police chief that backs a criminal organisation in government. I assume that he may think that his LinkedIn page is going to save him when a different political party enters office, and dismantles the whole criminal organisation that is in government right now. The usual insidious and amoral refrain “I was just doing my job.” – No  you weren’t, you idiot and that is the point.

I have made many mistakes in my life, some of them incredibly stupid, but I can never understand this kind of stupid – that of thinking that your support to an organised criminal organisation running the government will eventually pay off in time. Here is a hint – it won’t. On a long enough timeline, all the criminal organisations that form part of the government collapse under their own weight.