Two on trial over drug trafficking

Two Latin American men facing a trial by jury for drug trafficking were nailed after a Mexican man who brought the drugs to Malta spilt the beans on the whole operation.

The men, Josè Pena, 41, from Colombia and Domingo Navas, 33, of Panama were allegedly meant to pick up the cocaine the Mexican was carrying. But yesterday they pleaded not guilty to conspiring to traffic the drugs, estimated to be worth about €133,000.

Mr Pena and Mr Navas had been arrested after a controlled delivery in which Enrique Martinez Burgoa, 43, was cooperating with the police, having been caught on September 10, 2006 with the drugs in the false bottom of his luggage.

He had just flown in from Amsterdam on a connection flight from Mexico. Customs officers stopped him and found 1.5 kilos of cocaine and a piece of paper with a mobile phone number written on it.

He told officers he knew he was carrying drugs but did not know what type they were and agreed to help them, Police Inspector Nezren Grixti testified yesterday.

Mr Burgoa had said a certain Victor, whom he met in Mexico, had paid for his flight and promised him $5,000 for delivering the package in Malta, the officer said.

Victor had told him he would either be picked up at the airport or would have to go to a hotel and dial the number written on the paper and ask for the person at the other end of the line to pick up the drugs. He was told to invert the last two digits of the number he was given, a precaution just in case the paper ended in the hands of the police.

The police checked him into room 109 of a Sliema hotel and had him dial the number he was given in their presence. He made arrangements for someone to pick up the drugs from the hotel. A few minutes later, there was a knock on the hotel room door and when Mr Burgoa opened the police sprang into action and arrested Mr Navas and Mr Pena.

Before the trial started, lawyer Nadine Sant from the Attorney General’s Office asked for lawyer Joe Mifsud, representing Mr Navas as a legal aid lawyer, to be excused from the case because he had appeared for Mr Burgoa when he had been taken to court in 2008 and had been jailed for 12 years and fined €24,000 for importing the drugs.

However, Mr Justice Michael Mallia ruled there was no legal provision which empowered him to tell Dr Mifsud who to represent, adding that lawyers regulated their position with their client.