Alleged drug kingpin Jordan Azzopardi has made a fresh request for bail after the last of civilian witnesses testified on Wednesday, effectively eliminating “the greatest hurdle” to his release from preventive arrest.
Jordan Azzopardi sat at the dock alongside his 31-year-old girlfriend and mother-of-five, whose name was banned from publication under court order from the arraignment stage in March.
The woman has been out on bail since August 2 after forfeiting an earlier release over separate charges of having allegedly tried to bribe a witness, offering the latter €20,000 not to testify.
She is currently pleading not guilty to criminal conspiracy, fraudulently circulating fake cash and defrauding three stores in San Ġwann and Sliema alongside her boyfriend, who is further facing charges of drug trafficking.
The alleged drug lord has been under preventive arrest since March. A first bid for bail in August had failed after two car dealers, due to take the stand, had not turned up on account of travels abroad.
When proceedings continued on Wednesday, James Zammit, director at the car dealing company that had sold the Range Rover driven by Jordan Azzopardi, testified as to how the brand new vehicle had first been purchased from Mizzi Motors by the car dealer, before being sold to Jonathan Mangion, one of Jordan’s friends who had testified about the same matter in a previous sitting.
The sale of the vehicle, bearing private plates “TWENTY 3”, took place on September 18, 2018 for €119,000, out of which €70,000 were to be paid as deposit, with the balance being settled in monthly instalments.
In actual fact, after the signing of the contract, the dealer only managed to collect three cash payments of €5,000 and a Toyota IQ worth another €5,000 out of the €70,000 deposit.
As for the rest of the price, the dealer allegedly got “nothing else,” the witness explained, stating that matters had currently ground to a complete halt.
Asked whether he identified anyone in court, the witness declared he did not since he had not been directly involved in the showroom dealings.
A car sprayer, owner of a private garage at Mosta, testified about how the Range Rover had been taken to his garage for repairs after being damaged on the left side.
James Falzon explained how two doors needed replacing and added that the costs had been covered by insurance. The car had been taken to him by Mr Azzopardi, whom he identified in court, but had subsequently been taken away into police custody.
As the hearing drew to an end, defence lawyer Franco Debono argued that “Jordan Azzopardi’s rights were no different than those of others,” stressing that others had been granted bail though faced with charges relating to “kilos of drugs”.
In this case, the amount of drugs found was small and besides, once civilian witnesses had testified, the “greatest hurdle” had been overcome.
“I can quote ECHR jurisprudence from now [1pm] till 6pm. I’m just going to cite a few,” said Dr Debono, stressing that the law had been amended to allow an application for bail even in most serious cases. “But one cannot then make it impossible for bail to be granted.”
The court, presided over by magistrate Doreen Clarke, declared that it would decide upon the matter in chambers. Inspector Mark Anthony Mercieca prosecuted. Lawyer Ann Marie Cutajar from the AG’s Office assisted the prosecution. Lawyer Amadeus Cachia was also defence counsel.