It all started coming to light on March 15, 2012, with a shootout at a garage complex in a residential part of Marsascala. The scene was reminiscent of a Hollywood film.

Two men, Stephen Zammit and Kevin Gatt, both 32, ended up dead, while the survivor, 45-year-old Joseph Cutajar, known as il-Lion, claimed he had just made it out of an ambush.

He told the police the two men had followed him into the complex down to his garage, three floors below ground level.

When he stopped his vehicle, they parked right next to him. Zammit, who sat on the passenger seat, told Gatt to shoot.

A shot rang out and il-Lion ducked, slipped out of the car and ran for cover near a shaft, where he ‘remembered’ he had a gun hidden.

He returned to his would-be assailants and shot them both, killing Zammit on the spot and grievously injuring Gatt, who died some days later in hospital.

The word was out that is-Suldat and il-Lion, who previously worked together, had fallen out

The police did not believe the self-defence story because they charged him with murder some days later. But they also suspected that what happened in Marsascala might have been the result of a fallout between criminal associates.

“The word was out that is-Suldat [Paul Degabriele, 48, from Fgura] and il-Lion, who previously worked together, had fallen out,” a police source told The Sunday Times of Malta.

Seven months later that theory seemed to have been confirmed, when, on October 2, 2012, Degabriele himself asked the police to inspect his car after he saw two hooded men acting suspiciously next to it through his CCTV system outside his property.

He was right to get edgy, because a home-made bomb, packed with a kilo of explosives, was pulled out from below his pick-up truck.

The suspicion was that il-Lion had commissioned 68-year-old Pietru Cassar (il-Ħaqqa) – the man shot dead last Wednesday – to plant a bomb on is-Suldat.

In the days that followed, the police searched Cassar’s house and garage and found explosives, two unlicensed pistols, a machine-gun, an airgun and a large bomb, possibly from World War II.

But, there was no evidence to prove that he had been behind the attempt on Degabriele’s life and he was charged with the illegal possession of explosives and weapons.

On December 12, 2012, il-Lion was shot dead early in the morning by an assailant who waited for him close to his home in Mosta with an AK-47 rifle.

A few hours later, 41-year-old Josef Grech, known as il-Yo-Yo was found dead with a single shot to the head at Baħar iċ-Ċaghaq. Circumstances indicated an execution. However, it is believed that the timing could have been a coincidence and his death may be unconnected to the tit-for-tat killings.

He was due to face trial for his alleged involvement in the murder of Patricia Attard, believed to be the victim of a contracted killing, and investigators suspect his death might have been connected to this.

The prime suspect in the murder of il-Lion was is-Suldat but there was no evidence to prove it and, when interrogated, Degabriele gave the police nothing.

Five months later, on May 31, 2013, Degabriele was shot dead in broad daylight by two men who were waiting for him outside a bar in Marsa.

Police immediately suspected the possibility of foreign hitmen, possibly Sicilians, particularly because of how the crime was executed, at 11am on the busy Belt il-Ħażna road. Irrespective of who pulled the trigger, the word on the street among criminals was “il-Ħaqqa had made it happen”.

Sources said Degabriele’s gang appears to have acted on this premise and exacted revenge last Wednesday, when he was shot dead with two bullets, from a 9mm automatic weapon.

The murder still puzzling investigators is that of 58-year-old Joe Galea, known as il-Ġilda, 12 days ago.

He was well known to the police, but investigators have not yet understood how his murder fits in the tit-for-tat.

Still, the way the hit was executed – he was shot at 17 times in a drive-by shooting with a weapon believed to be a submachine gun – suggests his death formed a part of the ongoing hostilities.

The bullet spray from a moving vehicle shows clearly that the shooter was a professional. Moreover, as was the case with il-Lion, “the way it was done is made to send a message. Whoever killed il-Lion did not need to use an AK-47 – a very loud weapon – but it sends out a warning to whoever is still alive from his gang,” the sources said.

Police are now trying to establish if there is another person on the hit list.

But without the option of infiltrating these gangs with undercover police, knowing their next move is a difficult challenge.

Tuesday’s edition of Times Talk on TVM at 6.55pm will discuss organised crime.