An identikit of the killer was released by the police.

The man who gunned down Paul Degabriele in Marsa on Friday spent several minutes hanging around the area dressed as a workman, according to police sources.

Investigators believe the killer was foreign, primarily because he did not appear to go to extra lengths to cover his identity.

Reports suggest he was dressed in a blue boiler suit with fluorescent markings.

“If he was Maltese, he probably wouldn’t have carried out the murder in this way. He would probably have acted away in a quiet, dark place, to avoid being recognised,” sources said.

Police have interrogated “several” people in relation to this case but are finding it difficult to draw any conclusions.

“The difficulty is that this man had a lot of enemies. He was very suspicious of everyone and often with good reason.

“We believe a good number of people wanted him dead,” a police source told Times of Malta.

The difficulty is that this man had a lot of enemies

Although the gunman is said to have spent some time at the scene of the crime before firing five shots at Mr Degabriele, CCTV footage from the area was too grainy to identify him.

Meanwhile, it emerged that theft charges against the victim had been filed in court, coincidentally barely an hour before he was killed.

Mr Degabriele was charged by summons for a crime committed some eight years ago when a van full of meat was stolen from Pisani Cold Stores by four men.

Three men had been arrested in Qormi after police raided a garage from where they were selling the meat.

Police sources believe Mr Degabriele managed to avoid arrest and it was only after a delayed magisterial inquiry was concluded years later and recent fingerprint matches that established he could be charged.

It has also emerged that Mr Degabriele was in 2006 convicted of “aggravated theft”, though the circumstances of that case remain unclear.

The 48-year-old from Fgura was killed at about 11am out-side Sammy’s Bar in Belt il-Ħazna Road.

Police said they were looking for the gunman as well as an accomplice who drove him away in a stolen white Nissan Vannette with stolen licence plates.

Mr Degabriele, known as is-Suldat, had just stepped out of the bar and was sitting in his Toyota pick-up truck when he was shot three times in the head and twice in his upper body with a semi-automatic 9mm pistol.

Another man was in the truck with Mr Degabriele when the assailant started shooting but he escaped unhurt.

The police have so far issued two identikit images of the main suspect, based on witness descriptions.

Last October, Mr Degabriele had reported to the police that a bomb had been placed under the Toyota.

The device was safely detonated by ordnance experts.

In December, he had been questioned about the murder of Joseph Cutajar, known as il-Lion, who was found dead in his car in Mosta a few hours after Josef Grech, 41, from Balzan, known as il-Yo Yo, was found shot in the head in Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq.

Mr Degabriele had been released without being charged.