Cannabis imported on fishing boat, court hears

A Rabat farm owner and fisherman imported 14 kilogrammes of cannabis on his boat and then asked an Egyptian national to sell it, a police officer testified yesterday.

Police Inspector Dennis Theuma was testifying in the trial by jury of Andrea Zammit, 58, also known as Nizza, who stands charged with conspiring to import drugs, trafficking and being in possession of the drug in circumstances denoting it was not for his exclusive use and possessing dead protected birds on December 22, 2005 at about 1 a.m.

The trial, presided over by Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono, heard how a controlled delivery was carried out. Police officers waited for Egyptian Ekramy Abdel Aziz Mobarak, 33, at Saqqajja Hill, in Rabat on the night of December 21. Mr Mobarak was driving a red Citroen Saxo and when officers searched the car they found 59 blocks of cannabis resin in a brown box and wrapped in plastic in the boot of the car.

Almost immediately, Inspector Theuma said, Mr Mobarak began cooperating with the police and said that the man who had given him the drugs was Mr Zammit who had a farm near Tal-Virtù, in Rabat. He took the officers to the farm where a sniffer dog found a piece of plastic similar to that used to wrap the drugs in.

With Mr Zammit's help, the police searched the farm and in one of the rooms they found two chest freezers containing a number of dead birds but no drugs.

Mr Mobarak had told the police in a statement that he had even been offered a job aboard Mr Zammit's fishing boat, adding that Mr Zammit had wanted to sell the drugs for €582 each block. He was also allegedly told by Mr Zammit that he had brought in the drugs on his boat from Libya.

The officer said that, subsequently, Mr Mobarak admitted to conspiring to deal in the drugs and to possession in circumstances denoting the drugs were not for his exclusive use. He was jailed for 12 years and fined €34,940.

Under cross examination by defence lawyer Arthur Azzopardi, the officer confirmed that the plastic bag had been found on the outside of the perimeter wall of Mr Zammit's property in a rubbish pile.

The witness also confirmed that he had not checked who the owner of that adjacent property was.

In his address to the jurors, lawyer Jason Grima, from the Attorney Generals' Office, said the accused might come across as a lamb but he was in fact a wolf.

The trial continues.

Lawyer Emmanuel Mallia also appeared for Mr Zammit.