Cleared of drug trafficking

Magistrate Lawrence Quintano yesterday acquitted 31-year-old Francis Farrugia of charges of drug trafficking after the court concluded it could not be certain that the substances found were in fact drugs.

The prosecution, led by Police Inspector Mario Tonna, had charged Mr Farrugia with trafficking in heroin and had asked the court to confiscate his car.

The court heard that in April 2004 the police had received information that a man in San Gwann was making use of drugs. According to the prosecution, when the police arrived on site they found a certain Albert Bezzina taking drugs. Mr Bezzina said he had bought the drugs from the accused, but a search of Mr Farrugia's car had not yielded any drugs.

Mr Farrugia had admitted to the police he had sold drugs for a fortnight but he explained to the court that he had purchased the heroin from a man of Arab nationality and did not know if the substance he was selling was actually heroin.

Magistrate Quintano said it resulted that the police had not examined the substance allegedly trafficked by Mr Farrugia and, as a result, the required certainty that the substance was heroin was missing.

The court therefore acquitted the accused.

Lawyer Franco Debono was counsel to Mr Farrugia.