Open markets and bus stops are being targeted by gangs of foreign pickpockets who are using varied techniques to get at pedestrians’ belongings, but police are hot on the trail.
Criminal Investigation Department head Michael Mallia told The Sunday Times of Malta that several interrogations and an in-depth analysis of last year’s pickpocketing offences had helped them build a clearer understanding of local street crime.
CID head Michael Mallia. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli“We used to treat every case individually. But by looking at the situation holistically we have learnt how and why pickpocketing is happening and how to try and deal with it,” he said, flicking through a hefty file of cases and pickpocketing data.
There have been more than 6,500 cases of pickpocketing reported to the police over the past six years, rising steadily from 498 in 2008 to 1,500 last year.
Mr Mallia said the pickpockets apprehended so far this year were all Eastern Europeans, travelling through Europe with their gang and spending between a few days and a few months on the island before moving on to the next country.
The groups normally consist of one older relative, such as an uncle, who manages a coordinated team of younger thieves working “in the field”.
Mr Mallia said the thieves were experts at evading arrest and changed their methods regularly. “When we have a string of incidents, say bags being slashed; it is usually between 10 to 15 days before they go for another method. This makes it tricky to know what to look out for,” he said.
Perhaps the most useful information the police has gathered on these gangs, Mr Mallia said, was that they had nearly all come on one-way tickets from countries which were not their own.
“From this we realised that these had probably been doing the same thing in the last country they visited. So we started liaising with law enforcement in those countries to build stronger cases and try landing an effective prison sentence,” Mr Mallia said, adding that so far this was working and thieves were not getting off with a warning any longer. The police however are more interested in the victims rather than the culprits themselves.
Mr Mallia pointed to older women, especially tourists, as being the preferred victims of those who have taken to using busy bus routes, open markets, and Valletta streets, for the robbery. By identifying targets, police patrolling these hotspots are able to keep an eye on them and wait for the gangs to strike –catching them in the act.
“The areas they operate in are so busy and crowded; imagine a crowded monti, that it’s impossible to keep an eye on everyone. Keeping tabs on possible victims is easier,” he said.
For the past few years the emergence of pickpocketing has been synonymous with nightlife hub Paceville – dubbed the island’s crime capital.
Mr Mallia said the highest concentration of pickpocketing offences was still occurring in St Julian’s; however, the criminals were branching out across the island.
This does not mean police were not keeping tabs on the area. “They target younger victims around nightclubs, still women, but preferably in their teens or early twenties. They mostly go for handbags that are left at bars or mobile phones,” Mr Mallia said.
The stolen phones are rarely retrieved. Mr Mallia said this was not due to shoddy police work. On the contrary, stolen phones disappeared from local networks, meaning they were being sent out of the island, he said.
A number of arraignments are expected in the coming weeks of alleged pickpockets. Asked if increased police efforts would lead to a decrease in the incidence of theft, Mr Mallia is hopeful. “This really is a matter of ‘time will tell’. What is certain is that we are working hard to counter this,” he said.