Personal tragedy led man to drug addiction

An Attard man was jailed for five years for dealing in cocaine after a magistrate heard that it was a personal tragedy that led him onto the drug path.

Jean Agius, 61, was also fined Lm4,000 after Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani found him guilty of conspiring to deal in cocaine and trafficking in the drug on the night of November 20, 2002, and in the previous 10 months.

He had originally been arraigned together with Vivien Hazel Akharele Enahoro, an English woman of Nigerian origin, who was jailed for three years and fined Lm2,000 for importing the cocaine into Malta.

The magistrate heard Police Superintendent Neil Harrison explain that the police had been informed that on November 20, 2002, Mr Agius was going to be involved in the importation of drugs through a courier arriving on a flight from England.

Police officers went to the airport where they noticed Mr Agius and a woman waiting at the arrival's lounge. Some time later they observed Ms Enahoro, carrying just a hand luggage, meet Mr Agius and his friend.

When the police moved in, Mr Agius immediately told them it was him they wanted and that the other two women were not involved.

During a search, Ms Enahoro said she had something hidden in her private parts. It eventually resulted that she was carrying a container filled with about 125 grammes of cocaine of 16 per cent purity. The other woman was not involved.

In a statement to the police, Mr Agius said this was the third time he had imported drugs to Malta through a courier. The first time he had imported cocaine and shared it with friends who paid him for their share. The second drug consignment was of bad quality so he disposed of it. The third time, the cocaine was brought by Ms Enahoro who was then apprehended by the police.

Mr Agius said that part of that cocaine, about 15 grammes, was for his own personal use but he intended to share the rest with friends. They had not paid him for the drug.

Mr Agius testified before Magistrate Padovani that when he returned to Malta from England, where he had lived for almost 40 years, he arrived an addict and imported cocaine to satisfy his addiction but never trafficked in the drug.

He said that in England he owned one square mile of property, which consisted of well-established restaurants and clubs.

He specified that he ensured there was no prostitution on his properties, of which he was the major shareholder.

However, some time in the 1980s he was arrested by the British police and charged with living off immoral earnings and fraud. He explained that the police picked on him because they wanted information about Maltese people, information he did not possess.

It took him 10 months to be released on bail - for which he needed Lm50,000 in cash. He was acquitted of all charges in a trial and soon after initiated proceedings for compensation for wrongful imprisonment, which he won.

But this prolonged arrest had repercussions on his business. People were allowed to break into his premises and squat there. Prostitution too took place there. The empire he had built fell like a pack of cards.

Mr Agius said this all happed between the time he went to jail and 1990. Meanwhile, another tragedy unfolded. His brother, Ray, married a woman who, unaware to him, was HIV positive. In 1987, his brother died and left him an HIV positive daughter to look after. That was when his late brother's wife introduced him to crack cocaine, to which he immediately became addicted. Besides, his son, who used to abuse marijuana, ended up in a mental hospital where he refused to see him.

Mr Agius added that he returned to Malta in 2000 as an addict. Once here he realised that the crack cocaine on the market was "all rubbish" and so he contacted a supplier, who called himself Jets or Gucci, and imported drugs through a courier on three occasions.

He said he had lied in his statement to the police because he was high and thought that the police would not believe that the 125 grammes of cocaine were for his personal use. He insisted that he never trafficked in drugs.

After evaluating the evidence, Magistrate Padovani found Mr Agius guilty of the charges. On handing down judgment she took note of Mr Agius' age, the fact that he had attended a drug rehabilitation programme and that it was a personal tragedy that led him to drugs.

She jailed him for five years and fined him Lm4,000 and ordered that the time spent in preventive custody be deducted from his jail term.

Police Superintendent Harrison and Inspector Dennis Theuma prosecuted.