A man was jailed for seven years after pleading guilty to ecstasy possession and trafficking in September 2004 and committing the crime within less than 100 metres from a venue frequented by youths.

Clive Martin Bartolo, 24, of Ghaxaq, was caught in possession of 1,287 ecstasy pills and an amount of cannabis resin.

The court, presided over by Magistrate Lawrence Quintano, heard how Mr Bartolo was caught in possession of 507 pills and later, during a search at his house, another 780 pills were found. Mr Bartolo’s probation officer told the court that the accused started taking cannabis when he was just 12 years old and started taking ecstasy three years later.

Magistrate Quintano said he had taken into consideration that the accused was now clean and had managed to kick the habit thanks to assistance from Sedqa. However, he said the court could not ignore the large number of pills which were found in his possession as well as the fact that the accused used to sell the pills in batches of 100.

The magistrate therefore jailed Mr Bartolo for seven years and fined him Lm2,500.