A man was jailed for 12 years and fined €25,000 after a jury found him guilty of conspiring to traffic drugs with six votes against three.

Chris Grech, 28, of Qormi, was also found guilty with seven votes against two of drug possession in circumstances which denoted that the drug was not for his personal use.

The case hinged on a fingerprint on a bar of cannabis discovered during a police raid in 2006 when 3.5 kilos of drugs were found in a sack.

The police had said they had been monitoring Mr Grech’s and another man’s movement.

On May 18, 2006 the accused was seen driving a red Peugeot and together with the other suspect had parked at Bahar ic-Caghaq, next to the Splash and Fun Park, and hidden a sack containing the cannabis.

The two men returned to the site a few days later to retrieve the drugs. The police said they tried to stop them but they managed to escape. Mr Grech was arrested later.

In submissions on punishment, defence lawyer Manuel Mallia said his client had a clean police record and asked the judge to hand down a jail term which was similar to previous judgements.

Aaron Bugeja, who was prosecuting asked the judge to carry out a benchmarking exercise.