Soldiers hold two after finding drugs

Peter Korsten

Oct 26th 2009, 09:43

@A. Philips & R. Micallef:

It differs from one country to the next. In countries that have a gendarmerie (Guardia Civil in Spain, Carabinieri in Italy, Gendarmerie in France, Royal Marechaussee in the Netherlands) it's common for military forces (the ones mentioned are all part of the military) to perform certain police tasks.

Malta does not have a gendarmerie, and for the regular army to be performing police tasks is rather unusual in Europe, if it's not about protecting certain buildings or installations.

Another difference is that the regular army tends to carry assault rifles and sub-machine guns about, which may make some people nervous. It certainly made me nervous when I was in Paris in 1989, when there was the G7 summit, and every single gendarme, at 20 metre intervals and armed with an SMG, visually checked me out.

Roderick Micallef

Oct 26th 2009, 07:46

Dear Mr.Philips, it is evident that you are not familiar with law enforcement / army road blocks in Malta. The police do perform road blocks occassionally but usually to check vehicle road worthiness (lights, seatbelts, number of passengers etc) and documents and not to search for illicit drugs.
The maltese army was always responsible for road blocks that cater for illicit drug searches, these are usually very professionally staged and there is absolutely nothing wrong with them. To be honest I would prefer to have an army roadblock every now and again rather than stoned / drugged drivers roaming our streets.
As I like to say, if you have nothing to hide then what's the issue? People who have something to hide should worry and no one else.

Andy Philips

Oct 25th 2009, 23:52

This sounds like a South American military controlled dictatorship style, why not the Police and not the Army. Are we going to have check points now run by the local military, its like being back in S.America all over again.