A 29-year-old drug dealer from Santa Lucija who was sentenced to eight years’ jail and fined €4,000 last year had the punishment halved on appeal.

He could not be found guilty of trafficking diazepam as it was only mixed with heroin

Michael Portelli had been caught by the police with eight sachets of heroin mixed with diazepam, which increases the risk of an overdose, outside a school in Ħamrun in April 2011.

He had also been in possession of six pieces of cannabis resin.

Magistrate Marseann Farrugia had sentenced him after he admitted selling about 720 sachets of the drug to sustain his habit. She had also found him guilty of trafficking diazepam and doing so within 100 metres of a school.

He had been jailed for six years and fined him €4,000, adding another two years after converting a suspended jail term and three months for breach of a conditional discharge after having been caught in possession of cannabis.

The magistrate had noted in her judgment that, since 2007, Mr Portelli had also been convicted for possession of a firearm, driving without insurance cover, theft, fraud and forging documents and possession of cannabis and had been issued with a probation order for theft.

In submissions on appeal, defence lawyer Arthur Azzopardi argued that it was incorrect for his client to be found trafficking heroin at a school when, in fact, the police had stopped his car near a school.

He argued that his client could never have been found guilty of trafficking drugs near a school because it was a primary school and children of that age did not take drugs, let alone have money to buy them. Furthermore, statistics had shown that the youngest drug users would be 13 to 14 years old.

Mr Justice Lawrence Quintano said that he was not accepting the argument made by the defence because the law prohibiting trafficking near schools was intended to protect children of all ages and not just those who were more likely to take drugs.

He did, however, accept that Mr Portelli was stopped by the police near the school and not actually selling the drugs there.

The judge noted that Mr Portelli could not be found guilty of trafficking another drug diazepam as it only resulted that he had diazepam because it was mixed with the heroin and not separate.

He reduced the jail term to four years and three months and imposed a fine of €2,300.