Three men have been held in prison over a “messed up” case involving worthless contraband cigarettes, a lawyer argued in court yesterday in an impassioned plea for bail.

Edward Gatt, appearing for one of the accused, said the value of the cigarettes was not only far lower than claimed by the government but the cigarettes were likely to be fake.

“Forget about press conferences and figures bandied about in regard to the value,” he told Magistrate Aaron Bugeja in reference to a government statement valuing a container full of cigarettes at €1 million.

“There are at least four cases in every sitting before the superior courts over fake cigarettes passing through Malta, and the cigarettes are subsequently destroyed. And we have left the accused in prison over this,” Dr Gatt said.

At the end of the sitting the court bailed Rokku (Rocky) Agius, 53, of Żebbuġ, a stevedore, Michael Sciberras, 39, from Valletta, an assistant Freeport security officer, and Billy Grech, 44, of Żejtun, a senior Customs officer.

Mr Sciberras and Mr Grech were granted bail against a deposit of €2,000 and a personal guarantee of €5,000 while Mr Agius was made to make a deposit of €1,000 and a €5,000 personal guarantee.

They had been in custody for three weeks following the discovery that 450 boxes, each containing 10,000 cigarettes, were stolen from the Freeport last month. The value was put at €1 million including VAT and excise duty.

With defence lawyers Giannella de Marco, Veronique Dalli and Paul Lia in agreement, Dr Gatt said the company that supposedly owned these cigarettes had not made a claim for them, because they were counterfeit.

We have left the accused in prison over this

Shortly before Dr Gatt made his arguments, Derek Alley, a representative of CMA CGM, the company shipping the cigarettes to Libya, put their value at $66,000, about €47,000.

Earlier Police Inspector Rennie Stivala told the court that taxes and import duties had amounted to €908,320.

He said the police received a report from the Freeport directors that a 20-foot container had been stolen. It arrived on January 30 and was declared to contain Empire cigarettes.

Packed with boxes, it was subjected to a spot check a few days later and inspectors noticed the packaging stated “Empire Royals”, which aroused their suspicions.

The container was then sealed awaiting further investigation. Shortly afterwards, CCTV  cameras recorded it being loaded on to a truck in an unauthorised move and the truck leaving the Freeport, the inspector said.

The video showed Mr Agius driving the truck into the Freeport and talking to Mr Sciberras at the front gate, where the latter was supposed to scan a hand-held card to allow entry but did not do so.

The next day the container was returned but all that was inside were six empty plastic containers capable of holding up to 1,000 litres.

Also testifying was Romeo Dimech, a senior inspector at the Freeport, who said suspicions that the cigarettes were fake were raised by Customs officials who noted the container came from Dubai and was destined for Libya.

Both , he said, are considered to be “high interest” following several seizures of counterfeit items.