Victory Day was definitely a triumph for the Drugs Squad, which seized almost half a ton of cannabis in a record haul on Tuesday.
The haul, which the police said weighed more than 450 kilograms, is worth about €1.5 million and is more than twice the total amount found in the past eight years.
The police said the first seizure was made in the morning, when 15 bars of cannabis, weighing more than 14 kilograms, were found in a hotel room in Swieqi. The room had been booked by two men, a Lithuanian, 58, and a Serb, 53, who were staying in a hotel in Xlendi.
They were arrested shortly after they were seen leaving the hotel where they allegedly kept the drugs.
Shortly after, the police conducted a search in a villa in Wied id-Dis, Madliena, where about 81 bars of the drug, weighing almost 80 kilograms, were found hidden between a wall and the bedrock.
The villa's gardeners - two brothers aged 28 and 21 - who live in Swieqi were arrested.
The Drugs Squad was on a roll and, in the evening, 389 bars of cannabis, weighing about 370 kilograms, were found in a hole in a field close to Victoria Gardens, Ta' l-Ibraġ. The stash could only be accessed through a tunnel wide enough for a slim person to squeeze through.
Meanwhile, the police said another search was held in an apartment belonging to an English couple - a woman, 38, and a man, 39 - also situated in Wied Id-Dis, where more than a kilogram of cannabis, together with weighing scales, were found.
The Englishman charged, slightly injuring a policeman and two policewomen, and tried to discard the drugs. He was arrested, together with the woman.
Investigations, which have been ongoing for weeks, began when the Drugs Squad was tipped off that drugs were being hidden around Swieqi and Madliena.
Duty Magistrate Lawrence Quintano has launched an inquiry and, although the police are still investigating, the suspects are expected to be arraigned in the coming days.
Last year, the Drugs Squad seized 23 kilograms of cannabis, while, in 2007, it discovered two kilograms. In 2006, it found kilograms; in 2005, 20 kilograms; in 2004, 33 kilograms; in 2003, 34 kilograms; in 2002, nine kilograms; and in 2001 and 2002 four kilograms.
kbugeja@timesofmalta.com