Court jails smuggler of birds and cannabis

Eight years after importing 30 grammes of cannabis and 1,361 birds into Malta, most of which died because they were crammed into 69 cardboard boxes, a man was yesterday jailed and fined for his actions.

Magistrate Lawrence Quintano jailed 47-year-old Joseph Agius for six months for importing the drug and handed him a 14-month jail term suspended for three years for smuggling the finches, worth Lm3,765 in total.

The magistrate heard how on September 2, 1998, the Armed Forces intercepted a boat in the Mellieha area at about 1 a.m. On the boat the police found its owner, Mr Agius, and a certain Sandro Attard.

Police also found 69 boxes containing hundreds of crammed birds most of which had died because of the conditions in which they were kept.

Each box measured 13 inches by 6.5 inches by 2.5 inches and was sealed with tape and punctured at the side. There were up to 25 birds to a box.

The birds were 34 Chaffinches, 267 Greenfinches, 435 Goldfinches and 625 Serin finches.

On evaluating the evidence the magistrate found Mr Agius guilty of importing just over 30 grammes of cannabis resin into Malta, jailing him for six months and fining him Lm200.

He also handed down Mr Agius a suspended jail term and fined him an additional Lm200 for illegally importing the birds, keeping them in boxes that were too small for them, failing to follow the required port procedures when entering Malta with his speedboat and using his boat to import the birds worth a total of Lm3,765 on which he was to pay Lm564 in importation tax and Lm304 in duty.

The magistrate ordered the confiscation of the speedboat and the equipment found on board.

As for the surviving birds, the magistrate heard how they had been taken to police offices from where some escaped and the others were set free after the police filed a court application.

Police Inspector Walter Spiteri prosecuted.