Policeman held over drugs in sting operation

A former police officer facing drug-related charges informed on a constable who had requested his help to sell up to a kilogramme of heroin worth €60,000, a court heard yesterday.

The constable was arrested after he was secretly filmed giving a drug sample to the informer and a controlled delivery was carried out.

This testimony was given by Assistant Commissioner Neil Harrison at the start of a trial by jury of former Police Constable Jean Pierre Abdilla, 31, of Żurrieq.

Mr Abdilla is pleading not guilty to conspiring to deal in heroin, trafficking in the drug and breaching administrative law enforcement regulations on and before March 2005.

Assistant Commissioner Harrison testified that on February 22 of that year, he received a phone call from a police officer who was undergoing proceedings for drug trafficking.

The former officer, who cannot be named by court order to protect his identity, told him that Mr Abdilla had approached him and asked if he knew of anyone interested in buying half a kilogramme of heroin at €58.25 per gramme.

The man told Mr Abdilla he would let him know but soon afterwards contacted the Assistant Commissioner, who was a Superintendent at the time.

Next day, Mr Harrison obtained a court authorisation to carry out a controlled delivery and instructed the officer to tell Mr Abdilla he had someone interested in buying. The two men agreed to meet in the parking lot of the old airport in Luqa.

The police filmed the encounter during which, the man told officers, Mr Abdilla told him he could provide the buyer with up to one kilogramme of heroin. Mr Abdilla also told him that the heroin was not in his possession and that there were third parties involved.

The two eventually set up another meeting at the Luqa boċċi club and there the police filmed Mr Abdilla giving the man a gold coloured piece of foil. It contained just under a gramme of heroin.

The informer then met Mr Abdilla near the Safi swings and drove after him to a garage. Once there, Mr Abdilla told the man that, when the delivery date was set, he (the informer) was to bring the €60,000 which Mr Abdilla would count. After that someone would arrive and take the money but the drugs would be delivered at a later stage.

The man told Mr Abdilla he would have to speak to the buyers, when in reality it was the police he was keeping informed.

The police instructed him to tell Mr Abdilla the buyers disagreed with the plan and wanted the see the heroin before paying up. After consulting with third parties, Mr Abdilla said the conditions laid down by the buyers were unacceptable and the deal never took place.

Assistant Commissioner Harrison went on to explain how Mr Abdilla was arrested in Gudja and his house searched. Several bird carcases, some protected species and some stuffed, were found in a freezer. Mr Abdilla was also investigated for human trafficking.

Taking the witness stand, Police Inspector Dennis Theuma said that while waiting outside the court room, the informer told him he had been threatened by a man called Elton Abdilla, the brother of the accused. Mr Abdilla allegedly made a sign with his hands to the informer that he was going to cut his head off.

Police Inspector Theuma said he checked the CCTV recordings and Mr Grech could be seen making a sign with his hands but it was not clear what exactly he did.

At this point, the informer took the witness stand. He said that he first got to know the accused because they were policemen together. He recalled that the accused asked him if he wanted to buy heroin or if he knew anyone who would.

"I was shocked because I knew that he was a policeman. I was scared as I had my own case to worry about and then I called Assistant Commissioner Harrison and told him that I had been approached," he said.

In his statement to the police the accused declined to answer any questions and said only one thing: "I never took any drugs and have never given drugs to anyone else".

The accused was given the option of either resigning from the force or face suspension. He decided to resign.

Taking the witness stand, former Assistant Commissioner Paul Debattista said that during the investigations no drugs were found.

Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono presided. Lawyer Nadine Sant from the Attorney General's Office, prosecuted. Lawyers Anġlu Farrugia and Edward Gatt appeared for the accused.