Updated ay 7.15pm with arraignment details

The police raided a Birżebbuġa garage yesterday morning and discovered a drug cache that included cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy, methamphetamine, LSD and more than €80,000 in cash. 

The man was also found to be in possession of child pornography, police said. 

Drug squad officers swooped down following days of observation, police said, and first caught the 40-year-old with more than 100 methamphetamine pills and a bag containing around 500g of cannabis bud. 

They then proceeded to search a garage the man was living in, and came across a list of illicit substances alongside €80,000 in cash. 

READ: Police say drug abuse has reached 'a whole new level'

These included around 4kg of suspected cannabis, 1.5kg of cannabis resin, more than 100 ecstasy pills, 40 sachets of suspected cocaine and amphetamine and several LSD trips. Police also found a brown powder they suspect to be an extract of hallucinogenic magic mushrooms. 

Keith Desmond Falzon, 39, a drug pusher and child molestor, currently out on bail while awaiting an appeal judgment in a separate case of child defilement, was marched to court under arrest to face multiple charges centred upon drug trafficking, corruption of minors and money laundering.

Inspector Kevin Pulis explained in court how the drug squad had tailed Mr Falzon after receiving information of the man’s likely involvement in drug trafficking. Police were alerted about the arrival of a registered parcel addressed to Mr Falzon and said to be a book.

Investigators followed the suspect to the Birzebbugia postal office when yesterday he went to retrieve the parcel. The man was accompanied in his car by two minors.

Tailgating the suspect, the police stopped the man in Paola where a search soon revealed that the parcel in his possession was no book but rather a consignment of white pills, suspected of being illegal drugs.

The man was subsequently accompanied to his garage in Birzebbugia where, in the booth of a Mazda vehicle without number plates, the police found an extensive drug cache comprising 4kg of cannabis resin, 1.5kg of cannabis grass and other drugs including ecstasy, amphetamine, LSD as well as ‘magic mushroom.’

The court, presided over by Magistrate Joseph Mifsud, heard the prosecution explain how besides the drugs, the suspect was also found to have some €82,000 in cash in his possession.

Inspector Joseph Busuttil from the Vice Squad next stepped in to describe how besides the two minors seated in the man’s car at the time of his arrest, police discovered that there were other underage persons who regularly were in the man’s company.

There had allegedly been instances of sexual advances by the man in respect of the children whose ages varied between 8 and 11, the court was told.

A search of the man’s residence had also yielded pornographic material involving minors.

Mr Falzon was further charged with having committed the said offences while out on bail, besides being under the operative period of a suspended sentence.

He pleaded not guilty.The defence did not make a request for bail at this stage of the proceedings.

The defence did not make a request for bail at this stage of the proceedings.

The court issued a freezing order in respect of his assets.

Inspectors Joseph Busuttil, Jonathan Cassar and Kevin Pulis prosecuted.

Lawyer Roberto Montalto was defence counsel.

 

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.