Updated: Libyan jailed 18 years for importing heroin

A Libyan man was jailed for 18 years and fined €40,000 today after jurors found him guilty by an 8-1 margin of conspiring to import drugs and 7-2 of trafficking the drug in Malta.

Bedredeen Elghangha, 27, had been accused of imported 1.5 kilos of heroin into Malta in the false bottom of his luggage on April 26, 2007.

When he testified on Monday, Mr Elghangha claimed he had no idea about the drugs hidden in his luggage. He said that before leaving Tunisia he had swapped his backpack for the luggage after a friend asked him to exchange.

However, lawyer Lara Lanfranco, from the Attorney General's Office, argued that Mr Elghangha was aware of the drugs, adding that he planned to make money out of them that had a market value of between €69,000 and €107,000.