Joseph Grech, 45 of Marsa, has been remanded in custody after pleading not guilty to conspiring to traffic half a tonne of cannabis in September 2009 and in the months before.

He also denied trafficking cannabis.

The police at the time had arraigned two Serbs, a British couple and a Maltese man  in connection with the record haul.

The police had said in a statement at the time that the find was made following a week of investigations and observations in different areas in the Swieqi and Madliena areas.

The police found the cannabis in a hotel room in Swieqi, registered on a 28-year-old man from Lithuania and a 53-year-old Serb, who holds a British passport.

In their room the police found 15 large blocks of cannabis weighing more than 14 kilogrammes.

Later, the police carried out an intensive search at a villa in the Wied id-Dis area in Madliena finding 81 blocks of cannabis between a wall. The villa’s gardeners - two brothers from Swieqi, one aged 28, the other 21, were arrested.

Later in the evening, the police carried out a search at Victor Gardens, in the limits of Ibragg, Swieqi and found, 389 blocks of cannabis weighing some 370 kilogrammes hidden down a narrow hole in the ground. 

Another search was carried out in an apartment in Wied id-Dis where more than a kilogramme of cannabis as well as weighing scales were found.

An English man and woman, aged 39 and 38, respectively, lived at this apartment.