St Paul's Bay man jailed 10 years for drug trafficking
John Fenech, 48, of St Paul's Bay, was this evening jailed for 10 years and fined €15,000 after being convicted by a jury of drug trafficking and possession of drugs with intent to traffic. Jurors returned a 7-2 guilty verdict for the first charge and...
John Fenech, 48, of St Paul's Bay, was this evening jailed for 10 years and fined €15,000 after being convicted by a jury of drug trafficking and possession of drugs with intent to traffic.
Jurors returned a 7-2 guilty verdict for the first charge and an 8-1 verdict on the second.
The court was told yesterday that policemen had monitored Mr Fenech for two days after suspecting that he was trafficking cannabis resin from his house and garage.
Police Superintendent Norbert Ciappara told the court that Mr Fenech was found in possession of 600 grams of cannabis on March 3, 2004.
The police had seen people talking to the accused, exchanging suspicious looking packages and, on the day of his arrest, a car stopped near his house and the accused handed over a package.
Policemen followed the car and stopped it further up the road. A search was carried out and a passenger, a Nigerian national named Michael, was found carrying cannabis resin. The accused was arrested minutes later and at first denied having a garage.
When the police searched his pockets they found the key to the garage. Once inside, the accused began cooperating and handed over two bags containing the drug.
A search at his home yielded other drug-related paraphernalia.