Jean Pierre Abdilla, 31, a former policeman, was this afternoon jailed for 16 years and fined €40,000 after he was found guilty of conspiring to deal in heroin, trafficking in the drug and breaching administrative law enforcement regulations.
The cases happened on and before March 2005 when he was a serving officer.
The jurors found Mr Abdilla guilty by seven votes to two for, conspiring to traffic up to a kilogramme of heroin, trafficking in the drug, possession of the drug and trying to bribe an immigration official.
He was also found unanimously guilty of breaching administrative law enforcement regulations and possessing dead protected birds in a chest freezer.
In submissions on punishment, defence lawyer Anġlu Farrugia, asked the court to take into consideration that his client has a clean police record, that the actual drug trafficked was only half a gramme and that no drugs were ever found either on his person or at his home.
Prosecutor Nadine Sant said that the case was very serious and that it was not jut half a gramme that had been trafficked but there was up to a kilogramme of heroin.
“There were potentially 1,000 victims had the full kilogramme of heroin been trafficked”.
She also stressed that if had not been for the informer in the case, this crime would have not come to light.
See also
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20091203/local/prosecution-defence-debate-credibility-of-the-accused