Addict turned informer 'for family's sake'

A former drug user yesterday told jurors in a drug trafficking trial how he bought cocaine from the accused and then sold it to sustain his drug addiction.

Lawrence Micallef said he bought cocaine from Antonio Barbara then sold part of the drugs to be able to finance his drug habit, which he described as an expensive one.

Mr Micallef was testifying before Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono in the trial by jury of Mr Barbara, 28, of Mqabba who is pleading not guilty to trafficking in cocaine and the possession of cocaine and heroin in circumstances denoting the drugs were not for his personal use on and before August 2000.

The witness gave an account of how he went about buying drugs from Mr Barbara. He said that at the time cocaine cost about Lm35 per gramme and he consumed between 10 and 20 grammes a week. This lasted for about six months, until two people in a similar situation as he was exposed him to the police. When he wanted to buy drugs he would phone an Mqabba club and ask for Mr Barbara. Mr Micallef recalled that he usually bought 10 grammes at a time and the most he ever bought from him was 40 grammes.

Once he contacted Mr Barbara they agreed on a meeting place, he paid Mr Barbara for the drugs and received instructions on where to pick them up.

The witness explained that he usually paid in cash but after some time money started running out so decided to sell his BMW car which, as far as he recalled, was worth about Lm4,000. Since he still owed Lm3,000 to the car dealer, he gave the car to Mr Barbara in exchange for Lm300 and about 10 to 30 grammes of cocaine. Mr Barbara undertook to make good the debt on the car. Mr Micallef added that he bought a Lambretta with the Lm300 because he had ended up without a vehicle.

At the time his only source of income was a take-away in St Julians which he rented out and from where he made some Lm150 profit a month. He said he did not give much of the money to his wife because of his drug problem.

Mr Micallef explained that he was arrested and charged with drug trafficking in 1997 or 1998 and, since then, has been clean of drugs.

Under cross-examination, he said that he had been to Mr Barbara's house and had gone inside on one occasion. When asked to describe the inside of the house he could not recall the details and explained: "Then I was not a normal person but a drug person and I saw everything as beautiful".

He explained how when he bought drugs from Mr Barbara, he would sell part of it to earn money. If he bought a gramme, for example, he would cut half the amount with another substance and sell it for more than he had bought it.

Mr Micallef said that initially, when arrested, he did not want to expose anyone to police but he then remembered that at home he had a wife and three children and could not afford to spend a lot of time in jail so he had to speak up and mention names.

Jurors also heard Superintendent Neil Harrison explain that in May 1997 he investigated Mr Micallef for cocaine trafficking. Mr Micallef told police that he obtained drugs from Mr Barbara.

The superintendent went on to explain how on the night between August 25 and 26 the police were informed that Mr Barbara and two women - Veronique Bartolo and Turkish mel Aboushi - had been arrested in St Julians and that Mr Barbara was found to be in the possession of a cigarette packet containing brown powder suspected to be heroin, a sachet suspected to contain cocaine and items connected to drug abuse. Lm694 in cash were also seized by police.

Mr Barbara and the two women were stopped while in a car which turned out to belong to a certain Ronald Mifsud.

That night police also tried to stop Charles Farrugia, known as Ic-Cikli, but he sped off.

Mr Barbara and the women were taken in for questioning. Ms Aboushi said she had met up with Ms Bartolo and the two women went to Mqabba. When they got there Ms Bartolo made a phone call and Mr Barbara arrived and gave them a lift to St Julians. While driving from Mqabba to St Julians, the three of them had made use of cocaine in the car by passing a pipe round to each other.

Mr Harrison said that Ms Aboushi admitted to making use of cocaine but Ms Bartolo denied ever using drugs.

At the end of the sitting, Dr Stephen Tonna Lowell, prosecuting, declared that the prosecution had no further evidence to present.

The trial continues this morning when Dr Jason Azzopardi and Dr José Herrera are to start making their case in defence of Mr Barbara.