Drug dealer jailed

A 64-year-old man who admitted to conspiring to and importing heroin worth more than €22,000 in the soles of his shoes two years ago has been jailed for 10 years and fined €23,000.

Emanuel Scerri, known as l-Brixu admitted the charges at the beginning of a trial by jury and this was subsequently cancelled.

Back in October 2007, he had made arrangements to import 500 grammes of heroin from Turkey.

His partners in crime were arrested by Italian police in Rome and on his arrival in Malta, he was stopped and searched by police officers and customs officials, who realised there something unusual about the weight of his shoes.

The officials drilled a hole through them and discovered the heroin, which was found to be 43 per cent pure making it worth €22,788 at street value at the time.