Full day in court for drug trafficker

A man was yesterday jailed for 11 months, given a fine and a suspended jail term by two magistrates for separate crimes rumbled on the same day.

Salvino Muscat, 41, was found guilty of trafficking in cocaine after the police carried out a raid on his apartment and seized almost four grammes of the drug of 53 per cent purity hidden inside a Rothmans Blue cigarette packet in February 2005. Magistrate Lawrence Quintano heard how Mr Muscat had claimed that a person who had gone to buy drugs from him had actually left the packet on his CD player where it was found by the police.

But Magistrate Quintano found him guilty of trafficking and jailed him for 11 months and fined him €1,700.

In the same raid, the police also found 18 false Lm10 notes tucked away in clothes hanging in Mr Muscat's wardrobe. That investigation was taken over by another police inspector.

In a separate sitting, Magistrate Audrey Demicoli found him guilty of being in possession of the false money and jailed him for 13 months suspended for five years.