Updated at 11.15am; adds arraignment details

Three men were remanded in custody on Saturday on charges of attempted murder in relation to the failed Fgura car bombing in January.

Four men were arrested on Thursday.

Lorenzo Callus, Paul Farrugia and Jonathan Farrugia remained silent in the dock as the charges were read out, and chose not to answer questions regarding their personal details. All pleaded not guilty to the charges through their lawyers.

Appearing before magistrate Aaron Bugeja they were charged with the attempted murder of Mario Scicluna and Elaine Galdes, participating in a criminal group, conspiracy to commit a crime and possessing explosive material for illicit purposes.

Read: Failed car bomb arrests were made after phone tapping

Mr Callus was separately charged with carrying a gun without a licence, as well as cannabis and heroin possession, while Jonathan Farrugia was charged with possessing cannabis in quantities that indicated it was not intended for personal use.

Paul Farrugia was charged with the possession of a large amount of contraband cigarettes.

The court also ordered an earlier bail release to be revoked and for the accused’s deposit of €5,000 and personal guarantee of €10,000 to be revoked.

Police inspector Keith Arnaud said the cigarettes were found in a garage in Xgħajra, and more were later found in a Peugeot Partner van intercepted by police. The driver of the van, 46-year old Samuel Camilleri, was arraigned separately in relation to the contraband.

No request for bail was made and the court ordered that the men be remanded in custody.

The prosecution was led by Inspector Keith Arnaud. Lawyer Christopher Chircop appeared for Mr Callus, Robert Montalto appeared for Paul Farrugia, while Jonathan Farrugia was represented by Franco Debono and Arthur Azzopardi.

Mario Mifsud appeared in parte civile on behalf Mario Scicluna and Elaine Galdes.

On Friday, senior investigators told the Times of Malta they ahd good reason to suspect that this group had links to a previous car bomb and investigations on this are ongoing as we speak.

The police sources said that the four men were believed to be involved in a smuggling racket, ranging from contraband cigarette peddling to the trafficking of narcotics.

Nearly a quarter of a million contraband cigarettes and an unspecified quantity of drugs were seized by the police following the arrest operation on Thursday morning, sources said.

Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Sources privy to the investigation said that the gang had made the explosive device which failed to detonate and one of the men arrested is believed to be the mastermind behind the murder attempt. No motive had yet been established, but the sources said that they were chasing a number of leads.

Intercepted phone calls and surveillance by the Security Service, among other bodies, led to the arrest of four men.

Sources said that the police had been following the suspects’ movements for several weeks.

Their mobile phones had also been tapped, they said.

Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

The sources said the arrests were made after investigators extracted intact the SIM card that failed to detonate the explosive device. The SIM card is a key piece of evidence in the investigation.

Army explosives experts were deployed to Fgura back in January after nearby residents heard a loud ignition sound in St Anthony Street. Sources said that a bomb had been planted under a Mitsubishi Shogun owned by a person “well known to the police”.

The alert was raised when somebody noticed a spark and heard a strange noise, but the bomb, although activated, failed to go off.

The car was parked in a residential area, so the road was closed and the Armed Forces’ Bomb Disposal Unit was called in to investigate. The sources said the bomb appeared to be a home-made device.