Thousands of liri in jewellery seized

Customs officers seized around 3,000 gold and silver items, worth tens of thousands of liri stacked away in a false compartment in a trailer late on Friday.

The items were probably intended for the local market, a spokesman for the Customs Department told The Sunday Times.

The container had just been shipped from Catania and was searched in Grand Harbour after Enforcement Unit officials suspected smuggling.

The discovery was one of the biggest jewellery hauls ever made by Customs officers with the spokesman saying that a smuggling ring had been smashed in the operation.

The jewellery items were in four cardboard boxes placed at the bottom of the trailer. They included rings, bracelets, pendants, earrings, and broaches and decorative jewellery boxes.

"We are very happy with the modus operandi used. Our enforcement methods have changed and now there is a lot more intelligence work," he said.

The discovery was made just two days after the Enforcement Unit intercepted another trailer, which contained smuggled wines, alcoholic drinks and bullets.

In that case too, the items were hidden away in a false compartment. The two cases appear to be connected and the spokesman said Customs was not excluding the possibility that they were a joint Maltese and Italian operation.

In a separate case, also on Wednesday, a 27-year-old man, who holds a Maltese passport, was detained at the airport over drug trafficking, the spokesman said. Over 100 cannabis seeds were seized from the man following an intensive search. He had just flown in from London.

The police were informed about the three cases. Inspectors Joseph Cordina and Ian Abdilla from the Economic Crimes Unit are investigating the trailers case, while Inspector Josric Mifsud is dealing with the drugs case.

The police said when contacted yesterday that they had no information on the case.