The brother of a young man charged with drug dealing refused to testify when summoned to the witness stand this morning.

Terence Cini was called to give evidence in the case in which his brother Melvin, 26, from Żurrieq is facing drug trafficking charges.

The suspected drug dealer was denied bail after a drugs cache in Żurrieq earlier this month.

He had been arrested after the police received confidential information regarding suspicious goings-on around a parked car in a street in Żurrieq.

Inspector Frank Anthony Tabone testified that on the morning of January 19 at around 11.30am a police watch set up in the vicinity of the site, reported that the driver of a VW Passat, later identified as the accused, had stopped in the area and walked up to the parked vehicle, a Seat Ibiza.

As several officers closed in on the site, the accused was caught in the act of opening the booth of the Seat and rummaging through the contents. A police search yielded suspected heroin, cocaine, cannabis as well as ecstasy pills. A set of digital scales was also inside the booth, the court was told.

The accused was arrested and taken to police headquarters where, under interrogation he declared that the key to the Seat Ibiza was kept at his mother's shop in Qormi. Other members of the family had access to it, the accused had told the police.

The Seat had allegedly been parked in Żurrieq since it had broken down, the inspector informed the court. Under questioning by the defence, the inspector declared that after the accused's arrest the Seat had been towed onto a truck with the engine running.

The court, presided by magistrate Neville Camilleri, heard that the accused's brother Terence Cini, the registered owner of the Seat, had also been interrogated and let out on police bail.

The police surveillance operation had been set up following a tip off that the accused had often been seen approaching the parked vehicle in Żurrieq.

In today's sitting, the accused's brother, Terence Cini, when summoned to the witness stand, declined to testify.

Inspector Frank Anthony Tabone prosecuted.

Lawyers Marion Camilleri and Amadeus Cachia were defence counsel.

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