A drug addict was this morning jailed for 11 months and fined €1,250 after he was found guilty of trafficking illicit substances.

He was cleared, however, of supplying his drug buddy with a dose of heroin that killed him almost 10 years ago. 

Valletta resident Mario Buhagiar, 47, had been arrested in connection with the heroin overdose suffered by drug addict Joseph Raymond Christie on January 13, 2005. He had been found dead in his Msida home. 

Police investigations had revealed that Mr Christie had been in contact with the accused the day before his death. 

At Mr Buhagiar's house, the police found drugs and various items related to drug abuse. He immediately admitted to possession of heroin but insisted that it was for his personal use. He also told police that he had supplied Mr Christie with a sachet of heroin a few days before. 

Magistrate Natasha Galea Sciberras noted that while, on his own admission, Mr Buhagiar had supplied drugs to Mr Christie, there was no evidence that linked the accused to the dose of heroin that killed Mr Christie. She therefore cleared him of this charge but found him guilty of the rest of the charges related to drug possession and trafficking. 

The court noted that Mr Buhagiar had a long criminal history and had been jailed for six times already ranging from aggravated theft and voluntary damage to simple possession of heroin. Apart from imprisonment, he had also been fined four times and given four conditional discharges. 

As she found him guilty of committing the offence during a nine-month conditional discharge, Magistrate Galea Sciberras jailed him for 11 months and fined him €1,250. 

Assistant Police Commissioner Norbert Ciappara prosecuted.