Desperate and with no money to pay for his wife’s medical bills, a Mellieħa man accepted to hide drugs for two suspected drug traffickers, a court heard yesterday.

Paul, 59, and his 35-year-old son, Joe Cachia, from Mellieħa and Attard respectively, are pleading not guilty to conspiring to import and traffick cannabis.

They were charged last May after an intensive eight-month long investigation by the police drug squad.

Police Inspector Malcolm Bondin testified that during interrogation, Paul Cachia said that he had been approached by José Xerry, 45, from Naxxar and asked to keep drugs at his Mellieħa farm in an area known as L-Aħrax.

Mr Xerry stands charged together with Michael Aquilina, 39, from Mosta, with conspiracy to import, importation, trafficking and possession of cannabis and with transporting and conspiring to transport illegal migrants.

Mr Bondin said that Paul Cachia told him that when the offer to keep the drugs was first made, he turned it down but later he accepted because he needed money to pay for his wife’s medical bills.

At one point during investigations, when the accused had been arrested and interrogated, the police inspector said he received a phone call from Paul Cachia who was crying. He said that Mr Xerry had driven to his farm and threatened to “drench the ground” with his family’s blood if he were to say a word to the police about his involvement.

When Mr Cachia was taken to the police headquarters to make a statement about what had happened, he was so scared that he could hardly speak, Mr Bondin recalled.

Mr Cachia also told the police that the drugs had been hidden at the farm but then apparently stolen, leading Mr Xerry to threaten Paul Cachia that they needed to be paid because he was meant to look after the stash.