The British couple connected to a record haul of cannabis on Victory Day last year have been jailed after admitting to possessing and dealing in less than a kilograms of the drug.
Sheri Anne Steedman, 38, who had declared in court she was a charity worker, and her boyfriend Jason Lee Holland, 39, a builder, were arrested in September after the police found 446 kilograms of cannabis in a St Julians field following a tip-off.
This is almost three times the total amount seized over the past eight years and the haul has an estimated street value of €1.5 million.
A Maltese man, 28-year-old gardener Kevin Sammut, also stands charged with conspiring to traffic in 430 kilograms of cannabis and is pleading not guilty.
A further two men, Serbs Jovica Kolakovic, 52, and Tomas Mikalauskas, 28, both unemployed, stand charged with conspiring to traffic and being in possession of 15 kilograms of cannabis plants. They too are denying the charges.
Testifying, Police Inspector Dennis Theuma said that during investigations over the find, the police went to a Madliena villa and Mr Holland answered the door. He closed the door twice on officers and they spotted him throwing away a packet.
Once the officers managed to gain entry, they confiscated the packet together with another nine and their weight added up to 887.4 grams with a purity of 7.83 per cent, the officer said.
In a statement to the police, Mr Holland admitted that he did not smoke cannabis and had borrowed weighing scales and sachets that were found in the villa, from a friend.
In fact he had told police that, "I had so much stuff I did not know what to do with it and it was far too much to smoke for one person since I don't smoke and I was thinking of getting rid of it by giving it to others".
Taking the witness stand, Ms Steedman said that a month before she was arrested she had bought 400 grammes of cannabis for €450 and on the same day she received a phone call and was told to wait outside Park Towers Supermarket for a man.
The next day the same person demanded €1,000 and she eventually paid him.
Both of the accused filed guilty pleas in December last year.
Magistrate Lawrence Quintano said that he took into consideration their clean police records and that they had filed a guilty plea although a substantial number of witnesses had already been heard.
He jailed Mr Holland for 45 months and Ms Steedman for 35 months; they were also both fined €4,860 each.
Lawyers Jose' Herrera and Veronique Dalli appeared for Mr Holland and Renzo Porsella Flores appeared for Ms Steedman.