Police arrest two hunters at Salina salt pans

Police from the Administrative Law Enforcement Unit arrested two hunters at the Salina salt pans, which is a nature reserve.

The arrests were made over the past few days and sources said the police had been trying to catch the two hunters red handed for quite some time.

Surveillance by the police led to a hunter in his early 20s being arrested soon after he was allegedly spotted shooting at ducks. The sources said he was seen shooting at Shelducks. Information given by the public proved instrumental in pinning down the suspect, the sources added.

In a separate case, a man in his 50s was held after allegedly being found with a loaded gun inside the reserve.

The sources said both men, who are expected to be arraigned shortly, had already been convicted of hunting-related offences in the past.

Investigations by the ALE led to the discovery of a freshly-mounted lesser spotted eagle in a Gzira home. The sources said investigations started after the police received information that a man had shot an eagle.

The man in whose possession the species was allegedly found has also been convicted of hunting-related offences in the past, the sources said.

This is the second lesser spotted eagle to be brought to the attention of the police this year. The other had been found with gunshot wounds in Birzebbuga in September. The bird was sent for treatment in Germany, where it later had to be put down because of repeated infections it was developing.

In another hunting-related case, the police are trying to find out whether any Maltese could have been involved with four Italians who were arrested by the Guardia di Finanza in Porto Palo, on Saturday.

The four men from Calabria were arrested after being found in possession of several cases filled with about 2,000 birds which were about to be transferred onto a fishing boat to be brought to Malta.

Though the Guardia di Finanza did not say what the birds were, given the quantity involved, it is understood that the birds were finches, which are kept as cage birds locally and used as decoys to trap other birds in the wild. Bird trapping is still legal in Malta until the end of next year.

A spokesman for the Guardia di Finanza told The Times that the men were well known to investigators in Sicily and it was not the first time they had been found with protected species, which were trapped illegally in the area of the Straits of Messina. The men were arrested after days of investigations.

"We know that the value of the birds runs into several thousand euros. Investigations are still under way because we are trying to also arrest other accomplices," the spokesman said.

The operation was led by Col Carmine Canonico of the Guardia di Finanza.

In July, the Malta Police had arrested a number of people after finding them in possession of over 1,000 birds on a speedboat.