Jail for selling heroin, cocaine

A 37-year-old woman was yesterday jailed for two years after she admitted to trafficking in heroin and cocaine three years ago.

Magistrate Giovanni Grixti jailed Josette Bickle after she filed a guilty plea to trafficking in the drugs on and before August 2003.

The Magistrates' Court had already pronounced the judgement in Ms Bickle's case in September last year but it had been declared null by the Court of Criminal Appeal following an appeal filed by Ms Bickle.

The appeal court annulled the judgment because it failed to state the facts of the case and list the sections of the law that had proven to have been violated, as requested by law.

The records of the case were then returned to the Magistrates' Court where Ms Bickle was to be placed in the same situation as she had been prior to the first judgment being delivered.

Consequently, yesterday the Magistrates' Court delivered the judgment against Ms Bickle complete with all legal requirements.

Magistrate Grixti noted that Ms Bickle had been arraigned following investigations after a man had been found dead in a Valletta apartment.

Investigations revealed that the man had just been released from Mount Carmel Hospital and that, together with a friend, he had bought drugs from Ms Bickle.

After hearing how Ms Bickle had filed a guilty plea, the magistrate noted that the only tie there existed between her and the dead man were allegations that she had sold him drugs.

The magistrate added that Ms Bickle had not been charged with causing the man's death and, therefore, the facts surrounding his death were only being viewed in the light of the charges pressed against Ms Bickle.

The magistrate jailed her for two years and fined her Lm1,500 after noting that she had helped the police with their investigations.

Police Inspectors Nezren Grixti and Ramon Mercieca prosecuted.