Another two men have been arraigned over the theft from the Freeport of a container carrying more than 10 million cigarettes, as police continue investigating the case.

Haulier Malcolm Zammit, 35, from Qormi, and security officer Christopher Calleja, 51, from Valletta, denied the charges brought against them yesterday.

Their arraignment follows that of Sebastian Zammit, 60, from Safi and Malta Freeport employee Roderick Borg, from Qormi, last Sunday.

All the men are facing the same charges: theft of the container laden with 10.5 million cigarettes on August 7 and defrauding the government out of €1.667 million in excise duty, €175,000 in importation duty and €386,000 in VAT, for a combined figure of €2.23 million.

Container had more than 10 million cigarettes

The consignment was in 1,050 cases each containing 10,000 cigarettes valued at €304,500 in total.

The container was shipped to Malta aboard the merchant vessel Northern Jasper on July 24. Two weeks later it was reportedly taken out of the Freeport, only to be returned to its original location 90 minutes later. It still bore the Customs Department security seals.

A police investigation was launched.

The police said the quality of the cigarettes seized in the operation was found to be very low.

The prosecution is led by Inspectors Rennie Stivala and Carlos Cordina from the Economic Crimes Unit. Inspector Stivala told Magistrate Neville Camilleri that the police were investigating other people who could have been involved in the operation, including relatives of the four men arraigned.

He objected to a request for bail, saying that the prosecution had several civilian witnesses who had still to testify, many of who were work colleagues.

The defence did not insist on its request for bail but urged the prosecution to summon all its witnesses at the next sitting.

Magistrate Camilleri upheld a request from the prosecution to freeze the assets of the last two accused.

Lawyer Joe Giglio represented Mr Zammit while lawyers Edward Gatt, Mark Vassallo, Veronique Dalli and Dean Hili appeared for Mr Calleja.