Darren DEBONO

Malta

1974-01-09

Male

3 Saint Joseph, Saint Anthony Street, San Gwann, Malta; 22 Mensija St., San Gwann, Malta

049474M, National ID No.; 1071341, Passport

Drug cartel/Mafia

OFAC designated Darren Debono, Gordon Debono, Rodrick Grech, Fahmi Ben Khalifa, Ahmed Ibrahim Hassan Ahmed Arafa, and Terence Micallef pursuant to E.O. 13726 for their involvement in the smuggling of petroleum products from Libya to Europe.  In 2016, Maltese nationals Darren and Gordon Debono formed an unofficial consortium for illicit fuel smuggling from Zuwarah, Libya, to Malta and Italy in an operation that reportedly earned the group over 30 million euros.  Libyan national Fahmi Ben Khalifa managed the Libya side of the fuel smuggling operation, and Maltese national Rodrick Grech transported the Libya-originated fuel to European ports where it was sold using falsified fuel certificates, reportedly forged by Egyptian-Maltese citizen Ahmed Ibrahim Hassan Arafa, to obfuscate the fuel’s origin.  Additionally, Maltese national Terence Micallef operated a Malta-based shell company to sell the smuggled petroleum products in Europe.

US

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm0298

2018-02-26

US

Executive Order 13726 of April 19, 2016 Blocking Property and Suspending Entry Into the United States of Persons Contributing to the Situation in Libya

OFAC country specific / UN

Libya

Blocking Property, Suspending Entry

E.O. 13726. On April 19, 2016, the President, invoking the authority of, inter alia, IEEPA and the United Nations Participation Act (22 U.S.C. 287c) (UNPA), issued E.O. 13726. In E.O. 13726, the President expanded the scope of the national emergency declared in E.O. 13566, finding that the ongoing violence in Libya, human rights abuses, violations of the arms embargo imposed by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1970 (2011), and misappropriation of Libya's natural resources threatened the peace, security, stability, sovereignty, democratic transition, and territorial integrity of Libya, and thereby constituted an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.

SDN