Three kilos of cannabis resin that were reported missing from court were not misplaced but labelled incorrectly, the Times of Malta has been told.

It was established that the drugs had never actually left the building and had been stored in the court strong-room together with other non-drug exhibits, court sources said.

The reported disappearance of the drugs gave rise to an inquiry by magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech, and this led to the discovery of the 15 missing blocks of cannabis resin, which had been wrongly marked, the sources said.

Items held inside the court strongroom could only be identified through an index, with tags stuck to them, the sources said.

In this case, the sources added, incorrect details had been affixed to the package that contained the cannabis, resulting in it being reported missing.

Though new procedures and added security features introduced in recent years made it more difficult for anything to go missing, the cannabis blocks had been exhibited as court evidence in 2004 when a different and less error-proof system was in place, the sources pointed out.

The cannabis was meant to be used as evidence in a trial by jury scheduled to start last week before Mr Justice Antonio Mizzi.

The trial had to be postponed, and it remains unclear when it will be held now that the drugs have been retrieved.

The disappearance of the cannabis resin was reported by the Maltese language daily In-Nazzjon last week, and soon after, the court authorities also found out that a package containing an unspecified number of ecstasy pills was also missing.

An inquiry ordered by Attorney General Peter Grech as soon as he was informed about the missing pills continued, the sources said. The magistrate was now expected to look into the possibility that the ecstasy pills had also been labelled incorrectly.