A man has been jailed eight months and fined €1,000 over a drug-related offence dating back five years ago at the peak of carnival celebrations on the sister island.
Gozitan Ian Bonnici, 31, had been arrested back in March 2014 when his suspicious behaviour had caught the attention of officers from the Drugs Squad who were carrying out inspections in Gozo at the peak of carnival festivities.
The man had been spotted in the very early hours in a Suzuki Jeep parked close to a club at Victoria in the company of another man and a young lady.
As officers zoomed in on the vehicle, its two male occupants had at first resisted arrest.
A personal search of the accused had yielded 14 sachets of whitish powder, later certified to be cocaine. The woman was allowed to leave the scene since nothing illicit had been found in her possession.
A court-appointed scientific expert had subsequently confirmed the substance to be 5.94 grams of cocaine of 18% purity, which the accused claimed to have purchased from a third party.
The man was accused of aggravated cocaine possession, of supplying the drug within 100 metres of a place frequently visited by youngsters, as well as with relapsing.
The court, presided over by magistrate Joseph Mifsud, made reference to the UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic In Narcotic Drugs which states that an accused’s intent to supply drugs “may be inferred from objective factual circumstances”.
Given the scenario of the case, the court observed that “though not considerable in amount” the drug had been apportioned into 14 sachets.
Although the accused had testified that he was a drug user, no evidence had been put forward to support this claim, nor whether he had sought treatment to overcome his addiction, the court observed.
“The manner whereby he sought to justify this [possession of 14 sachets] did not convince the court,” declared the Magistrate, thereby concluding that the first charge had been sufficiently proven.
Not so the second accusation, since the prosecution had failed to prove that the drug-trafficking had actually taken place within the 100-metre parameters laid down by law.
Making an appeal for future reference, the court called upon the prosecution to request the appointment of a court expert to draw up a plan of the crime scene, including relative measurements, “so as to do away with any doubts such as those arising in this case”.
As for the final accusation, the court concluded that the prosecution had failed to put forward any copies of judgments proving the accused’s previous convictions.
The court declared the accused guilty and pointed out that a prison sentence and a fine were mandatory in this case in terms of law.
The court also ordered the destruction of the drugs.