Driver carrying contraband cigarettes cleared over lack of intent

A man accused of transporting contraband cigarettes has been acquitted after a court said it was not convinced he knew he was carrying the illegal goods.

Samuel Camilleri was accused of being in possession of contraband cigarettes with the aim to defraud the government of taxes and excise duty. The cigarettes had a total value of €6,960, while the excise duty amounted to €41,977.40, €4,008.96 in importation duty, and €9.528.36 in VAT. He pleaded not guilty.  

Then police inspector, now assistant commissioner, Keith Arnaud told the court that on March 15, 2018, the police had received information about a third party using a Peugeot Partner van with registration plates “LCV 017”. 

Police spotted the van on Luqa Road in Luqa and surrounded it. Its driver, Camilleri, told officers he didn’t know who owned the van. He also did not provide his personal details, telling police he “did not know” them.

Camilleri was arrested and taken to the police headquarters while Arnaud drove the van to the police compound. On the way, the van’s back door opened, and a box fell out. Arnaud picked it up and placed it on the passenger seat.

The box contained contraband Tradition cigarettes that are not normally available on the local market. Inside the van, the police found a total of 24 boxes, each containing 50 cartons. There were 200 cigarettes in each carton.

Police inspector Kurt Zahra continued the investigation and established that the van was registered to Clyde Micallef. The Economic Crimes Unit were informed about the contraband find.

Micallef told the court that he had a grocery shop in Cospicua with a third party and they had bought the van to transport stock. However, the vehicle was not under his control and was used by the shop. He did not know the accused. He also acknowledged that through negligence, he did not transfer the vehicle to the person using it.

The accused chose to testify in the proceedings. He recalled that on the day, he was in Qormi having a coffee and had met Ġanni Azzopardi, better known as “ix-Xalun”. He knew Azzopardi from the horses' racetrack. Azzopardi asked the accused to drive his van from Ħal Farruġ to his garage in Mrieħel and offered to drive him to Ħal Farruġ himself.

Once they got there, Azzopardi showed him the van and told him that the key was hidden under the carpet. The man then claimed he had an errand in Mqabba. Camilleri said Azzopardi told him to wait for him in Mrieħel and promised to drive him back to his car in Qormi. Camilleri got into the van and started driving towards his destination.

The accused recalled “several police vans” surrounding him just as he passed a fuel station on Luqa Road.

“I saw several machine guns and police officers in balaclavas. They pinned me to the ground,” Camilleri told the court, adding that he was in a state of shock.

“I was aware of what was happening but I could not utter a word,” he said.

When asked why he had accepted to drive the vehicle, Camilleri said Azzopardi complained about his three children not helping him out. He insisted he was never told what he was transporting inside the van.

Eventually, Camilleri got to know that Azzopardi had another case on contraband cigarettes.

The court said there was no doubt that Camilleri was driving the van containing contraband cigarettes at the time of the arrest. What remained unclear was whether Camilleri had the intention to commit the crime.

Camilleri’s testimony was solid, it said, and he had given a detailed explanation of what had happened on the day under oath.

“The accused could have never foreseen he would land himself in trouble and end up in six-year long court case,” the court said, saying that his testimony raised doubts as to whether he knew what was in the sealed boxes inside the van.

The defence also brought forward evidence which cast doubt on Azzopardi’s “dubious” character, who was the subject of a criminal investigation relating to contraband. Camilleri’s defence team presented a copy of a judgement delivered by judge Joseph Zammit McKeon in separate court proceedings relating to contraband cigarettes.

Those proceedings related to a search inside Azzopardi’s Qormi garage. There they had found contraband cigarettes which Azzopardi bought from third parties.

Camilleri’s testimony was deemed “probably true” by the court after it took into consideration his behaviour and the circumstances of the case. It concluded that Camilleri was in a state of shock at the time of his arrest and had replied “I don’t know” when asked for his personal details or the name of the van owner because of that.

Azzopardi died while Camilleri was still facing criminal proceedings.

The court also took into consideration the man’s criminal record, and said at first glance one could understand why Azzopardi chose Camilleri to drive the van, since he had already been convicted on a number of offences including theft and prostituting minors.

The forensic expert found eight different fingerprints, however, it never carried out a comparative exercise to establish whether the accused had touched the boxes containing the contraband cigarettes. 

After it analysed all the evidence, the court said the balance tipped towards the accused, and acquitted him of all the charges brought against him.

Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech presided over the court.

Lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri and Adreana Zammit appeared for the accused.