Maltese police are investigating whether a van found in St Paul's Bay may have been used by three men who were arrested in Sicily on Saturday after allegedly offloading 19 immigrants there.
Police sources said the red van, found near the Wignacourt Tower, was thought to belong to one of the men, Joseph Xerri, and may have been used to take the immigrants to the boat before the trip.
Maltese police are helping their Italian counterparts following the arrest of the three men.
Mr Xerri, 43, who was born in Spain, Michael Aquilina, 36, from Pietà, and Kurt Buhagiar, 25, from Birkirkara, were arrested in Ragusa following a one-and-a-half-hour high-speed chase at sea which ended in international waters.
Yesterday the three men, who are detained in a prison in Modica, were questioned by the Italian police who had been working on apprehending "the organisation" for over a year, sources in Italy said.
The three men are thought to have left Malta on Friday night to transport the group of 19 immigrants to Sicily aboard a blue boat called Enrique, also believed to belong to Mr Xerri.
The Italian media reported that the Guardia di Finanza had been monitoring the boat but did not intervene until all the migrants had disembarked. Once the powerful boat started its voyage back to Malta, the Italian authorities chased and stopped the vessel. The men were arrested and taken to Pozzallo. Warning shots were fired during the chase.
Two of the men were reported to have been slightly injured when the Guardia Costiera boat tried to slow down their boat, although it is not clear exactly how the injuries were caused.
Mr Xerri and Mr Buhagiar were taken to a prison in Modica while Mr Aquilina was taken to a hospital for treatment, according to the Italian sources. He was discharged yesterday afternoon and escorted to the Modica jail where all three men were questioned.
The men were offered the assistance of the Maltese Consulate in Sicily but turned it down at this stage.
The immigrants, who include one woman, are mostly from the Ivory Coast while three are from Burkina Faso, two from Nigeria, one from Niger, another from Guinea and one from Senegal.
A spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Ministry said the ministry had not been informed about any decisions taken by the Italian authorities as to whether or not the immigrants would be sent back to Malta.