Court reduces bail deposit for drug heist accused
Four accused remained behind bars because they could not cough up the bail deposit
A court on Tuesday reduced the deposit required for four men accused of the Safi Barracks drugs heist to get bail, after upholding pleas that they did not have sufficient means.
Sean Attard, 30 from Żebbuġ, Yousef Essesi, 33 from St Paul’s Bay, and brothers Carlos and Cleaven Pace, 23 and 19 from Marsa, were granted bail in June but remained behind bars because they could not come up with the bail deposit money.
They were arrested shortly after the spectacular February heist which saw some 132kg of cannabis resin stolen from a container which was supposedly under guard at the AFM's Safi barracks. The drugs were part of a consignment of cannabis resin seized at Malta Freeport in June 2024.
The four stand accused of carrying out the robbery, criminal association for the purpose of drug trafficking and cannabis possession in circumstances denoting it was not for their personal use. Carlos Pace also stands accused of having breached the terms of a suspended sentence handed to him in 2023 and bail conditions imposed on him in 2024 in separate criminal cases. They deny the charges.
In June the court had granted the accused bail against a €30,000 deposit and a €40,000 personal guarantee.
On Monday defence lawyers called for a downward revision of the deposit requirement, because it was out of reach of their clients
AG lawyer Kevin Valletta countered that the sums imposed by the court were not calculated in a capricious manner and were appropriate for this case.
Lawyer Franco Debono said that the complaint was not about being done capriciously either, but that bail conditions should be such that they could be met. The court was unaware of the financial standing of the accused when ordering the deposit. If the men were not in a position to deposit the amounts requested, they would have to remain in prison, as had happened so far.
The defence lawyer argued that the accused were not asking for the deposit to be removed, but for it to be reduced sufficiently so that they could pay it up..
The prosecution requested that the men have a third-party guarantor and that the personal guarantee should be increased if the deposit was decreased.
Lawyer Amadeus Cachia, appearing for Essesi said his client could only deposit €10,000.
The court upheld the request and in a decree on Tuesday reduced the deposit to €20,000 and increased the personal guarantee to €50,000.
As previously laid down, the accused have to observe a curfew and sign the bail book daily.
Earlier in the sitting on Monday, police inspector Joseph Mercieca confirmed under cross-examination that the evidence against another accused, Christa Gauci, amounted to the CCTV footage of her car in the area on the night of the heist and phone localisation data. Gauci, who is Cleaven Pace’s girlfriend, told the police that she was with her boyfriend on the night of the heist.
Lawyer Franco Debono said that Gauci’s statement could not constitute evidence against Pace.
Court expert Godwin Sammut also took the stand and confirmed the THC purity of the cannabis resin seized from the accused.
Under cross-examination, Debono asked the court expert whether the university laboratory used for the analysis of the drug was accredited.
Sammut said that the university aimed to get accreditation by the end of summer. A formal application could not be submitted until everything was ready. When asked why no application had been filed, Sammut said that as things stood, there was no obligation imposed on the laboratory by the government or EU law.
After Sammut’s testimony, Debono informed the court that the defence was considering filing a request to have an independent expert analyse the laboratory. “The witness has claimed that they are in the process of accrediting the laboratory. Every time he testifies, he says it will happen, but it never does,” Debono said, adding that there was a private laboratory which had been accredited.
Magistrate Elaine Rizzo presided the hearing. AG lawyers Maria Francesca Spiteri and Kevin Valletta prosecuted, assisted by police inspectors Mark Anthony Mercieca, Alfredo Mangion and Jeffrey Scicluna Briffa.
Lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri, Charles Mercieca and Adreana Zammit assisted the Pace brothers. Debono and lawyer Matthew Xuereb are assisting Sean Attard. Lawyer Amadeus Cachia and Mario Mifsud are assisting Essesi.