Police recount swoop after 'drug exchange'

The police suspected that a drug deal had taken place when they saw two men walk towards a laundry carrying a plastic bag and then walk away carrying a Bank of Valletta envelope wrapped in a towel, a court heard yesterday.

Inspector Christopher Pullicino told Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani Grima how, following a tip-off regarding a drug exchange at the Danish Village, in Mellieha Bay, the police saw Godwin Agius, who was with Clayton Camilleri, walk towards the laundry carrying a white plastic bag. Officers lost sight of the two men but after some time they saw them walk away from the laundry. But this time Agius was carrying a towel and an envelope.

"That's when I gave the order to search the two men and Lm2,800 in cash was found in the envelope. We also searched Ambrose Zammit's laundry van where we found eight brown bars of what we suspected to be cannabis resin under a laundry bag," Inspector Pullicino said.

He was testifying in the compilation of evidence against Agius, 40, of Mellieha and Camilleri, 21, of Zebbug who are pleading not guilty to the possession and trafficking of almost two kilogrammes of cannabis resin and conspiring to deal in the drug on September 5 and the previous six months.

Zammit, 26, of Mellieha is facing separate proceedings and is pleading not guilty to the same charges.

Earlier, Inspector Neil Harrison, also prosecuting, said that during a search at Camilleri's house the police seized a piece of cannabis resin. The police also searched Zammit's house where they found 14 pieces of cannabis resin. Zammit told the police he had bought the eight bars from Agius for Lm2,800 which he withdrew from the BOV Mellieha branch that day at about 12.35 p.m.

Zammit said he had bought drugs from Agius on about eight other occasions within the past four or five months and admitted that he intended to sell the cannabis resin in the Mellieha area, Inspector Harrison said.

But Agius denied selling drugs to Zammit and told the police the Lm2,800 was his payment for selling a van but he could not provide the officers with the name of the person he sold the van to. Agius said he had only gone to the laundry to wash his hands because his car had stalled. However, investigations revealed that there had been contact between the mobile phones belonging to Agius and Zammit, the witness said.

Court expert Mario Mifsud said tests on the eight bars indicated there was a total of 1,960 grammes of 11 per cent pure cannabis resin.

At the end of yesterday's Magistrate Padovani Grima ruled that there were enough reasons for the indictment of Agius and Camilleri.

The cases continue.