A minivan driver was yesterday remanded in custody after he pleaded not guilty to trafficking and being in possession of cocaine and cannabis resin on and before July 27.

Magistrate Silvio Meli upheld Police Inspector Pierre Grech's request for the assets of the accused, Antoine Azzopardi, 34, of Mtarfa, to be frozen.

In a request for bail, defence lawyer Arthur Azzopardi told the court that his client has a clean police conduct certificate and has never been arraigned.

After taking into consideration the fact that if found guilty Mr Azzopardi could face up to 10 years in jail, Magi- strate Meli turned down the request and remanded him in custody.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.