A Siġġiewi couple were yesterday charged with drug trafficking after being arrested following a controlled delivery of one kilogramme of cocaine on Wednesday.

Angelo Bilocca, 34, and Priscilla Cassar, 30, pleaded not guilty to conspiring to import and to deal in the drug and relapsing.

Ms Cassar also denied tampering with evidence.

José Herrera said his clients were subject to a controlled delivery, which, going by recent European Court judgments, could not be carried out because police could not actively entrap the accused.

He said that, although investigating officers had acted according to Maltese law, he wanted to raise a constitutional point about this situation.

Dr Herrera added that two Nigerian men turned up at their farm in Siġġiewi and handed the package to them.

“Perhaps they decided to buy the drugs at that moment,” he said, adding that their actions did not mean there had been a previous agreement to do so. Magistrate Doreen Clarke remanded the defendants in custody and requested the prisons director to allow Mr Bilocca, escorted by officers, to feed his animals.

The couple’s arraignment follows that of a Spanish man, who cannot be named by court order, and Paul Ugochukwu Offor, 37, from Spain; Kingsley Wilcox, 31, from Iklin and 35-year-old Charles Christopher Majimor from Marsascala who all pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and related charges.