Drug pusher gets 25 years

Mark Stephens was yesterday jailed for 25 years and fined €60,000 after a jury found him guilty by seven votes to two of conspiring to import 7,100 ecstasy pills and three kilogrammes of cocaine in 2003.

This is the first time a drug exporter and not just a courier has been convicted in Malta, the head of the Prosecution Unit at the Attorney General's Office, lawyer Anthony Barbara, said.

Mr Stephen's conviction follows the 15-year imprisonment and €58,250 fine imposed on Gregory Eyre who was the courier caught with the drugs at Luqa airport in 2003. Mr Eyre had originally named Mr Stephens as his supplier but, risking life imprisonment, he changed his version when he testified last Monday.

He has now been arrested on court orders and is being investigated on perjury charges after saying one thing when testifying before the Magistrates' Court and another when appearing before the Criminal Court this week.

Mr Eyre stuck to his latest testimony notwithstanding a stern warning by the presiding judge, Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono, about the consequences of lying under oath.

Mr Eyre had identified Mr Stevens as his supplier during the compilation of evidence in his case in 2003. Last Monday, he told the jury that the accused was not his supplier and instead named a certain Andrew Woodhouse, who, he said, was also known as Mark Stephens.

Mr Eyre had originally been charged together with the girlfriend Susan Molyneaux but Ms Molyneaux was eventually released.

In 2005, Mr Stephens was extradited to Malta from Spain where he spent a year waiting for the Spanish courts to decide on sending him here.

In the pleas on punishment, defence lawyer Joe Brincat said Mr Stephens had confided in him that he thought that, in the summing up to the jurors, Mr Justice Galea Debono had given him a "fighting chance". He asked Mr Justice Galea Debono to show the same justice in the sentence.

Dr Brincat asked the judge to take into consideration the fact that the verdict was not a unanimous one, that Mr Stephens had spent about a year in preventative custody in Spain and the length of time taken for Mr Stephens to stand trial because he was contesting other charges.

In reply, Dr Barbara pointed out that Mr Stephens had a circle of friends who were known to wheel and deal in drugs and that he had tried to escape from the island using a forged passport last July.

Besides, his criminal conduct indicated that he had already been found guilty of possession of cannabis and breached his bail conditions twice.

Investigations into the case were conducted by Police Superintendent Neil Harrison and Police Inspector Norbert Ciappara.