Augustine Onuchukwu was this afternoon jailed for 15 years and fined €70,000 after a jury found him guilty of complicity in the importation of drugs.

The jury, who spent about four hours deliberating, also found him guilty of conspiring to import the drugs.

After about four hours of deliberation, the jury also found the 49-year-old Nigerian, who holds American citizenship, guilty by seven votes against two of

The man had been accused of importing almost a kilo of heroin back in 2008.

Although no drugs were ever found on him, the heroin in question was brought to Malta by convicted courier Efosa Efionayi, 28, who swallowed the capsules and later implicated the accused as being part of the operation.