Fisherman guilty of dealing in cannabis

A Rabat fisherman was yesterday jailed for 18 years and fined €50,000 after jurors convicted him of conspiring to traffic and trafficking in 14 kilogrammes of cannabis resin in December, 2005.

Andrea Zammit, 58, also known as Nizza, was found guilty by seven votes to two. He was also found guilty by eight votes to one of illegal possession of protected dead birds.

Jurors returned after four hours of deliberation following a four-day trial which was characterised by tension-filled questioning and technical legal points.

The star witness, Egyptian national Ekramy Abdel Aziz Mobarak, 33, took the witness stand on Tuesday and identified Mr Zammit as the person who had given him the drugs on the day in question.

Mr Mobarak was caught through a controlled delivery by officers and found to be carrying the large haul in the boot of his car.

He admitted to his involvement before standing trial by jury last year and was jailed for 12 years and fined €34,950.

On being arrested on Saqqajja Hill in Rabat, Mr Mobarak immediately took officers to Mr Zammit's farm, where he said he had been given the drugs.

In fact, as officers made their way down to the farm, they intercepted Mr Zammit who was just leaving and within hours of the two arrests, a sniffer dog found a piece of plastic which matched the packaging of the drugs found in the boot of Mr Mobarak's car.

In submissions on punishment yesterday, defence lawyer Emmanuel Mallia asked the court to take into consideration his client's age, the fact that he has been waiting for four-and-a-half years for trial and that his criminal record was relatively clean.

Prosecutor Jason Grima said punishment should reflect the amount of drugs found and that there was no admission at the beginning of the trial.

After taking into consideration the submissions made, Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono jailed the accused for 18 years and fined him €50,000.

Lawyer Arthur Azzopardi also appeared for Mr Zammit.