Two men were this afternoon remanded in custody after they pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking.

Sampson Twene, 20, a Ghanaian who resides in Sicily, was caught with one kilo of cannabis resin in his backpack by Drugs Squad police who were carrying out random checks on passengers on his arrival in Malta on the Catamaran last Friday

He was charged with conspiring to sell, importing and possessing drugs not for personal use.

Mr Twene’s lawyer, Roberto Montalto, said that at this stage, his client was filing a not guilty plea so as not to preclude him from challenging the Attorney General’s discretion to refer the case to trial before the criminal court.

Police investigations following his arrest led to the arraignment of a Gambian man, who was arrested on Saturday afternoon in Sliema.

Omar Bah, 29, also pleaded not guilty yesterday to conspiring to sell the drugs.

Mr Bah, who lives in Sliema, told the court that he only “owns small quantities,” and not “all this stuff”. Magistrate Giovanni Grixti warned Mr Bah to watch his words.

Police Inspectors Pierre Grech and Malcolm Bondin prosecuted. Lawyer Joseph Ellis represented Mr Bah.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.